Smallsword Hilt

This is a complete and well-preserved example of a French smallsword hilt of chiseled and partly gilded steel and one of very few specimens known to bear a signature. The signature names Lebrun the Younger (“Le Brun Cadet”), an unknown member of a dynasty of sword furbishers active in Paris from the mid-seventeenth century through the late eighteenth century.

The ornamentation of the grip is based on the same, currently unknown iconographic source as the grip of a French smallsword in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. A688) and that of a sword made in Paris in 1856 for presentation as a gift from the city of Paris to Commandant Ildefonse Favé, which is in the Met’s collection (acc. no. 2014.595). The ornamentation of the other components is otherwise drawn from other sources. The main themes of the ornamentation include allegories of war and plenty (quillon-block), knowledge (pommel), literature and painting (grip), the hunt, war, and love (shell-guard).