A Very Rare & Fine Silver Hilted Side Ring Hanger with Dogs Head Pommel. 31” overall, 25” Solingen made single edged curved blade, with a fuller below the spine, hollow ground & engraved with crescent moon faces in profile, stars & military trophies to each side. The silver hilt with oval loop sideguard joining the knuckleguard, rear quillon, the pommel formed in the round as a lion's head, its mane overlapping the grip, octagonal faceted button finial. The knucklebow with hallmark ‘IC’, possibly for Joseph Clare II, London 1763, the ebony grip spiral grooved & bound with silver ribbon & twisted silver wire. The original leather scabbard with silver mounts, the throat plate with pricked signature to the rear, ‘BIBB. Newport Street’’, trophy of arms on the front.
London Hall Mark for 1763.
Very fine sword by one of the very best London Sword cutlers in very good condition, almost certainly for a wealthy Naval Officer. Lord Nelson’s fighting sword was a similar side ring hanger.
See ‘Lord Nelson’s Swords’ by Sim Comfort part one and ‘Naval Sword & Dirks’ by Sim Comfort pages 66-72 , ‘Sword for Sea Service’ by W. May & P Annis, front cover & plate 20, &d ‘London Silver Hilted Swords’ by L. Southwick page 49.
Charles Bibb (1702-77) was a prominent London sword cutler working at “Ye Flaming Sword Great Newport Street”, off St. Martin’s Lane, Westminster. He had been born into a dynastic family of London cutlers: his father Thomas Bibb, working at New Street, near Fleet St. from 1710; his grandfather John Bibb gained freedom of the Cutlers’ Company in 1660; and his great-grandfather, John Bibb free of the Cutlers’ Company in 1638.
In the autumn of 1735 Charles Bibb succeeded Joseph Le Febure to whom he had been indentured since 1717 at his premises (“next to ‘The Porcupine’ in Newport Street”). In working outside of the city of London there was no legal necessity for Charles Bibb to obtain freedom of the Cutlers’ Company. Bibb remained in business here for the next forty two years until his death aged about 74. Charles Bibb was succeeded by his son, also Charles.