Hanger and scabbard, with hilt by Jules Wipse, marked Froment-Meurice, 1850 (metal & leather)

(IX.5407) Hanger and scabbard, with hilt by Jules Wipse, marked Froment-Meurice, about 1850, France. With silver hilt cast as one piece and finely chiselled. The combined grip and pommel in the form of a poacher, in late 18th-century dress, his head thrown back and clasped by his hands in pain and his right leg caught in man-trap above the forward quillon. The recurved guard extends further outside the hand than inside and has two short scrolled quillons recurved in the plane of the blade. Inside the hand, on the side towards the blade, the guard is engraved 'FROMENT-MEURICE'. The guard is decorated with a dead game bird, ivy tendrils and flowers over finely pierced scroll-work. There is a worn textile buff-piece. The short, two-edged blade has two medium fullers, rising 25.4 mm (1 in) from the hilt and extending almost to the tip, and is decorated on both faces for most of its length with a panel of relief etched oak leaves and acorns. The black leather scabbard has a locket and chape both chased with oak leaves and acorns and with decoratively cut opposing edges. The locket has a frog-stud in the form of a wolf's head. Condition on acquisition: Good, sound & complete; scabbard leather possibly a later restoration.