207 - A very rare saber belonging to a senior officer of the King’s Gendarmerie, with a shell-shaped guard and three chiseled and gilded brass branches bearing the arms of France; below them, an openwork palmette and, on either side, two small chiseled laurel branches, a leaf-decorated crossguard, a scabbard cap with a long tail entirely chiseled with foliage and laurels, a counterguard adorned with a palmette, and a leather-covered, filigree-decorated tang; straight blade with a double fuller, gilded and blued one-third of the way up, shortened, center-pointed, length 85 cm; nickel-plated iron scabbard with a single band, of later date; total length 104 cm.

A very rare saber belonging to a senior officer of the King’s Gendarmerie, with a shell-shaped guard and three chiseled and gilded brass branches bearing the arms of France; below them, an openwork palmette and, on either side, two small chiseled laurel branches, a leaf-decorated crossguard, a scabbard cap with a long tail entirely chiseled with foliage and laurels, a counterguard adorned with a palmette, and a leather-covered, filigree-decorated tang; straight blade with a double fuller, gilded and blued one-third of the way up, shortened, center-pointed, length 85 cm; nickel-plated iron scabbard with a single band, of later date; total length 104 cm. Early Restoration period. Very good condition. This saber is the only one known to exist in private hands or in a museum (?). It was likely reused by a descendant of this officer in the late 19th or early 20th century.