Imperial Navy Swords Part 1

[Guest Rick Research]

From a local collection

This sword is semi-famous from the days when it belonged to my cousin Ted:

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Much much more to come.

[Guest Rick Research]

Like the old joke about having an Olympic gold medal bronzed, this magnificent piece is almost completely covered with blue and gold. Only at the tip does the combintion of band and small rose patterns show:

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[Guest Rick Research]

The wearer was a Graf von...

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The question, the burning question though is....

WHICH Count????????????

(scan brightened to show the damascus pattern underneath the bluing)

[Guest Rick Research]

Happy happy frolicking goldfiiiiiiiisssssssssshes

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from the drag

[Guest Rick Research]

another adorable high 3-D goldfish halfway up

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[Guest Rick Research]

The throat

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to be continued...

[Guest Rick Research]

I thought I had posted this for the current owner here previously, but couldn't find it anywhere. Hence, some photos taken years ago, the first and best by my cousin Ted when it lived at his house:

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OK, so it's clear where all the technical talent in my family went, isn't it....

[Guest Rick Research]

Some more, only taken by technologically impaired cousin Ricky:

the Count's family crest again. Who WAS this guy?????

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He was certainly moose-ish in the flesh-- this is a BIG sword, with oversized guard, as well as MORE deluxe than anything I have ever seen INCLUDING Royal presentation girts.

On the back of the blade "Our Future Belongs On The Water." Both sides show the newest class battleships of circa 1902

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and a detail

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I took these several years ago and they are fuzzier than the scans I made today.

[Guest Rick Research]

More of my old camera shots, the magnificent "pirate cutlass" guard

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[Stogieman]

Interesting sword. Surprised there's no maker's mark, especially with a Damascus blade

[Guest Rick Research]

There may well be-- I was busy scanning, but the marks are generally so close to the crossguard that they cannot BE scanned and have the blades down flat-- that's why the lovely little "tin-toy" pond battleships aren't shown completely-- the knuckle guard got in the way at the edge of the scanner.

Work like that requires

a) a good camera

b) a way to get said camera's shots onto the old Computomasheen, and

c) talent which in my case has been doled out in other areas!

[David Gregory]

Swords are not my "thing", but that is an astonishing example of craftsmanship no longer found in this day and age.

[Guest Rick Research]

It is indeed, and my poor sectional scans and blurry camera snaps cannot do it justice, though cousin Ted's portrait photo gets close.

I've seen Kaiser Prizes and royal presentation items and NONE of them even come close to this

[Mark M]

Rick

Very beautiful sword! The damascus pattern is not true small rosebud, but a modified small rosebud. True rosebud would have been covered from stem to stern in the little buds and not had all the waves in between.

Good luck in researching the family crest. I tried several years ago to do that with a named, matched TR dagger and sword. I discovered that family crests are only pasted from father to eldest son - all other heirs must slightly change the sheild pattern before they can use it. If you can find a book on registered family crests though you might be able to narrow it down to a family but after that it would be all speculation.

Mark

[Hauptmann]

Hi Rick,

I would humbly but "strongly" suggest you head over to your local family center... they're run by the Mormon Church and are everywhere. They do not charge for their services and love to help out in genealogical research. They are to genealogy what, frankly, you and many of the other members of this club are to our hobby. I guarantee you'll have one or more in your area. They have people who are absolutely terrific at genealogy plus they may likely be able to link you to the exact people you need to track down this crest. It looks like you've narrowed down a time frame, and it seems it would be someone from Germany, be it from Prussia or one of the states that would have owned this magnificent piece.

German heraldry is a bit different from that of say, England and you need someone familiar with their system and where to find what. But once you find "that" person or persons you will be well on your way to find out who this belonged to.

The nice thing is, most genealogists are all too happy to assist in such little mysteries as this and although some research can cost a bit much of it is free of charge as those folks are as passionate and dedicated to their hobby as we are to ours.

And knowing that this individual "had" to, as you say have more money then God it should be all that much easier to track him down. As a noble it will be all that much easier to track him down. I hope you have some luck with this... will be keeping my fingers tightly crossed and will be saying a few prayers for you on this one!

Good luck!

Dan

Edited April 24, 2006 by Hauptman

[Guest Rick Research]

Me genealogist, me.

Alas, German heraldry (and we've tried) has thus far been a dead end, even with a limited pool of "suspects." Counts in the navy were never thick upon the aters, but this is complicated by the remotest of chances that this fellow was some sort of temporary MARINE streay from the army, as in:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=7503

[Mark M]

Rick

I feel your pain! The TR dagger/sword set that I mentioned above not only did I have the family crest but also the family last name. I was trying to pin it down to which one of the seven or eight members the set belonged to. I finally gave up the project after about a year and a half of searching in vain.

It is still a very beautiful, one of a kind sword!

Mark

[Daniel Murphy]

Rick,

That is one of the most magnicient swords I have ever seen.

Dan Murphy

[Bob Rodgers]

Now all of these are class !!!

[Guest Brian von Etzel]

Great threads Rick.

Only thing missing after these years online is the key to these hearaldic crests that hold the final key to whom some of these pieces belonged to.