LOT-ME42. For your consideration is an exceedingly rare and important, early 18th century, Tsarina Catherine II of Russia Era (Catherine the Great) antique Imperial Russian / Eastern European natural Siberian Rock Crystal Wax Seal Desk Stamp with engraved Armorial Royal Coat of Arms, bearing initials D. (left) E. (right)?. One-of-a-kind royal object!
This natural Rock Crystal desk seal features an illustration of a forward facing knight, with open helmet and feathers, a circular shield, cannons, crossed hussar saber swords, with flags and banners, and imperial Russian military metals. Ottoman empire designs.
Poppy flower or sunflower hand carved motif design at pinnacle. Body is oblong / oval in shape, featuring a pattern of vertical cuts to the natural rock crystal. Condition is excellent. Weight is 7.0 OZ. Height is 2.8". Diameter is approximately 2.0" at widest point (center); approximately 1.33" diameter at top; approximately 1.45" diameter of actual seal; however oval in shape therefore diameter is not exact.
The hussar sabre was perhaps the best-known type of Szabla of its times and became a precursor to many other such European weapons. Introduced around 1630, it served as a Polish cavalry mêlée weapon, mostly used by heavy cavalry, or Polish Hussars. Much less curved than its Armenian predecessors, it was ideal for horseback fighting and allowed for much faster and stronger strikes.[1] The heavier, almost fully closed hilt offered both good protection of the hand and much better control over the sabre during a skirmish. Two feather-shaped pieces of metal on both sides of the blade called moustache (wąsy) offered greater durability of the weapon by strengthening its weakest point: the joint between the blade and the hilt.
The soldier fighting with such sabre could use it with his thumb extended along the back-strap of the grip for even greater control when 'fencing' either on foot or with other experienced horsemen, or by using the thumb-ring, a small ring of steel or brass at the junction of the grip and the cross-guard through which the thumb is placed, could give forceful downward swinging cuts from the shoulder and elbow with a 'locked' wrist against infantry and less experienced horsemen. This thumb ring also facilitated faster 'recovery' of the weapon for the next cut. A typical hussar Szabla was relatively long, with the average blade of 85 centimeters (33 in) in total. The tip of the blade, usually some 15 to 18 centimeters long, was in most cases double-edged. Such sabers were extremely durable yet stable, and were used in combat well into the 19th century.
The Polish and Hungarian Szabla's design influenced a number of other designs in other parts of Europe and led to the introduction of the sabre in Western Europe. An example that bears a considerable resemblance is the famous British 1796 pattern Light Cavalry Sabre which was designed by Captain John Gaspard le Marchant after his visits "East" to Central and Eastern Europe and research into these and other nations' cavalry tactics and weapons. Poland had ceased to exist as a separate nation by this time but their other co-nation from previous centuries, Hungary, was still an existing nation, and as this was the source of all things "Hussar", it was the Polish-Hungarian Szable of 150 years earlier rather than the oft quoted Indian tulwar that were the main source of inspiration for the first "mainly cutting" sabre in the British Army. This same "1796" sabre was taken up by the King's Hanoverian troops and also by the Prussians under General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher who attempted to give his name to the weapon, almost universally known as "the 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre" in the rest of Europe. This weapon also found its way into the cavalry of the newly formed United States in the War of 1812.