Rijksmuseum

Object data

iron, brass, leather and textile

sword: length 81.5 cm
scabbard: length 72.2 cm

Inscriptions

inscription, top, on the blade: M=fture Imp=le du Klingenthal Juin 1812
assayer's mark: assayer’s marks

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-739

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

Boarding hanger with scabbard and shoulder belt.

Curved blade grooved down both sides, iron hilt with larger rounded grip. Hilt and guard are japanned. On both sides an anchor is etched in the blade. The scabbard has a brass locket and a top locket with frog stud (broken off).

This boarding sword, officially known as ‘scheepssabel N° 1’ (sea service hanger N° 1), was an almost exact copy of the French boarding hanger of 1811: this model is in fact a French original.¹

Before 1845 this sword was used as a sign of rank by chief petty officers, and after that date for all NCO’s and even some sailors, until it was replaced by the ‘klewang’ (a Javanese-style cutlass), probably in 1928. During the nineteenth century the shoulder belt was replaced by a waistbelt.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 739; J.D. Jansen and G.R. Hof, ‘De bewapening van het Nederlandse leger in het tijdvak 1813-1840’, De wapenverzamelaar 4 (1966), pp. 3-24 and ‘De bewapening van het Nederlandse leger in het tijdvak 1840-1867’, De wapenverzamelaar 5 (1967), pp. 3-10, with ill.; J.D. Jansen and G.R. Hof, ‘Nederlandse blanke legerwapens 1830-1914’, De wapenverzamelaar 6 (1968), pp. 3-11, fig. 21; W.E. May and P.G.W. Annis, Swords for Sea Service, 2 vols., London 1970, pp. 173-74; J.P. Puype, Blanke wapens. Nederlandse slag- en steekwapens sinds 1600 … , Lochem/Popperinge 1981, pp. 15-16, figs. 105-06, 236

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Manufacture de Klingenthal, Boarding Hanger in Scabbard, Klingenthal (Alsace), 1812', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244553

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