79 - Saxon cavalry sabre M 1892 Weyersberg Kirschbaum, dedication Carabinier Regiment Borna, 1913

Saxon cavalry sabre M 1892 Weyersberg Kirschbaum, dedication Carabinier Regiment Borna, 1913 Saxon cavalry sabre M 1892, private purchase weapon (Extrawaffe). Bow hilt of nickel-plated steel with three bars (three-bar hilt), fixed, turned-over thumb loop and black fishskin grip with fine wire wrap. The slightly curved back-edged blade richly etched on both sides with scrolls and military trophies, the etched panels with remains of gilding; in gilt Fraktur script the dedication “Das Offiz. Korps d. Karab. Rgts. d. Wachtmstr. Leonhardt z. 25 jähr. Dienstjubil. 1913.”. On the back of the blade inscribed in a cartouche “MATTH. MÜLLER KGL. HOFL LEIPZIG”, on the ricasso the pictorial marks king's head and knight's helmet above “W.K&C” of the blade forge Weyersberg Kirschbaum und Co, Solingen. On the hilt a Saxon NCO portepee (sword knot), dark, interwoven with silver-grey, with braided-over knob. Black lacquered steel scabbard with one movable carrying ring and drag. Gilding rubbed in places. Condition commensurate with age. L. 106 cm, blade length 89 cm. The Royal Saxon Carabinier Regiment (2nd Heavy Regiment), raised in 1849 as the 3rd Reiter Regiment and known under the name Carabinier Regiment since 1867, was stationed entirely in Borna from 1893 and was disbanded in 1919. The dedication from the officers' corps to a Wachtmeister (sergeant major), the highest-ranking NCO of the squadron, on his 25th service anniversary makes the sabre a named commemorative weapon with a clear regimental attribution. Weyersberg Kirschbaum und Co in Solingen, formed in 1883, used the king's head and the knight's helmet of its predecessor firms as a double mark and was one of the largest suppliers of edged weapons to the German army; the weapon was sold through the firm Matth. Müller in Leipzig, royal purveyor to the court. The sabre, the helmet of the Carabinier Regiment (lot 77) and a further Saxon cavalry sabre M 1892 with unit marking (lot 78) come from the same wearer. Wachtmeister Leonhardt, honoured in 1913, was the grandfather of the journalist Rudolf Walter Leonhardt (1921–2003), head of the Feuilleton (arts section) and deputy editor-in-chief of Die Zeit, who grew up as the son of two teachers in Breunsdorf, Borna and Geithain; the letters addressed to him by his old acquaintance Kurt Klein recall “die unvergeßliche Oma aus Borna” (the unforgettable grandma from Borna, p. 138) and show his father Rudolf Leonhardt as a young soldier in 1917 (p. 139). Literature: Kurt Klein, Von Deutschland nach Deutschland. Briefe aus der „Ostzone“ 1947–1985 an Rudolf Walter Leonhardt, Bad Münder 1998, pp. 136–141.