Light Cavalry Saber, Versailles Manufacture – Model Year XI (1802)

Brass mount, with a so-called "hunter" guard with three lateral branches. The main branch is signed Versailles, numbered "1118", and hallmarked "B" in an oval of JJC Bureau, director of the factory from February 1812 to July 1813. The quillon is hallmarked "V" and marked "234". The cap, with a long tail, also bears a control hallmark. Wooden handle covered in leather (black waxed calf). Curved blade, with hollow sides, 87.5 cm long. The back is engraved "Mfture Impale du Klingenthal June 1813". On the heel are the regulatory hallmarks: "K" with a star of JI Krantz, inspector then director (March 1812 – August 1814), "B" surrounded by laurel of JG Bick, controller of the 1st class (1812 – May 1815), "L" of FL Lobstein, reviser (June 1811 – July 1821). Iron scabbard, fitted with wooden straps, with half-round bail bracelets. Very good condition with an original patina, slight surface oxidation on the scabbard. This sabre perfectly illustrates the quality of imperial manufacturing, combining power and elegance. Its production, dated precisely June 1813, directly links it to the Napoleonic campaigns of the Empire.