French early Napoleonic naval boarding cutlass by VERSAILLES. Unit marked.
French M 1802 Naval boarding cutlass. Excellent - unmarked bright finished long curved blade with a narrow fuller close to the blade spine. The blade shows light user spurs and somewhat staining only. Intact brown leather washer. Excellent heavy one piece brass hilt with a single hand guard and a forward swept quillon. Grip with 28 fine ribs. (The hilt is much heavier than the hilt of an infantry briquet.) Left side of the hand guard is marked: VERSAILLES and shows two French inspection markings. One is J.C. in an oval and the other one is to weak to read. The guard is very crisp unit marked in large digits: IL 13 : 119.
No scabbard.
Total length: 76 cm. Width at the ricasso: 3,2 cm
Very impressive early French Napoleonic naval boarding sword. It differs from the infantry briquet by a larger hilt and a different fullered blade. Not easy to find!