CEREMONIAL SWORD French, Paris ca. 1815/19. Silver hilt, pommel cap with acanthus- and laurel leaf decoration, knuckle guard, the quillon end designed as an animal head, marks: Paris 1809/1819. Curved guard plate, decorated: n the center with a medallion: "Hercules fighting the Nemean lion". Square ebony grip, waffled. Blade with triangular cross-section (L 85.5 cm), blued, gilt etched decoration, somewhat rubbed, signature. L 97.6 cm. As the first of his Twelve Labors, Heracles strangled the Nemean lion. The engraved decoration probably refers to the first years of the French Restoration, and thus to the end of the Napoleonic era.

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