Item ref: 3716
Private collection, United Kingdom
By the latter decades of the 17th century the small-sword had effectively taken on the status of male jewellery, it having become an essential element of a gentleman’s dress when about town. This fashion brought about the continuing development of richly ornamented hilts and in London Society the taste for carrying an elegant sword in St. James’s and the Mall saw out the end of the 18th century.
The styling of small-sword hilts evolved over the course of the 18th century, the pair of arms projecting immediately behind the shell-guard lost their original function of fitting the grip of two fingers and consequently became smaller. The reduced but still bold shape of the of the arms of the present hilt reflects this transition beginning prior to 1720. In the present instance also, the slight swell at the base of the quillon-block is residual from an earlier feature and already considered conservative by 1735-40.
There is no concealing the grandeur of this gold-encrusted hilt and it must have been among the finest to leave Charles Bibb’s workshop. Other known sword hilts attributed to Bibb are made entirely of silver, or gilt-brass, and create less visual impact.
The so-called ‘encrusting’ of precious metals onto base metal is distinguished from the general process of damascening in that the resulting gold or silver inlay stands proud of the base metal surface and can itself be engraved in detail. This low relief work literally heightens the scope of the artist. As in the present example, a complex decorative scheme can be achieved and frequently from about 1715-20 this involved figural vignettes. The present hilt displays, again somewhat conservatively, a series of figural subjects from classical mythology, the allegorical moral messages taken from these being very familiar to all classically educated gentlemen of the period. The designer has in this instance, however, cleverly updated the overall effect by suspending these subjects within a profusion of more frivolous rococo shell and floral motifs, then at the height of fashion. The contrasting effect of a blued ground would have been superb.
The relatively delicate scabbard is a rare survivor, its chape and the suspension hook which projects from the locket are each decorated with a scaled matching version of the work on the hilt. The cutler has typically pricked his signature on the reverse of the locket (gilt-brass being expedient in a part unseen when suspended in a carrier).
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 (I), working at New Street, near Fleet St. from 1710; his grandfather John Bibb (II) gained freedom of the Cutlers’ Company in 1660; and his great-grandfather, John Bibb (I), 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, and by two daughters, thereupon the business came to an abrupt end.
With iron hilt formed of a pair of boldly shaped arms, horizontal rear quillon with globular terminal and knuckle-guard all issuant from the quillon-block, the latter swelling slightly towards its base, a symmetrical double shell-guard and an ovoid pommel rising to a button; the grip binding of patterned gold wire and ‘Turk’s head’ knots is an expert restoration. Richly decorated throughout with a rococo scheme of engraved gold-encrusted deities and related figures from classical mythology, all in low relief on a contrasting blued ground, now mostly age-patinated to russet. Involving the figure of Athena on the pommel, designs of putti, bouquets, trophies and rocailles differing over the respective sides of the knuckle-guard, the quillon-block with the figure of Hygieia goddess of Health on one side and with a further chariot-borne female deity on the other, the figures of Leda and Venus on respective sides of the shell-guard, the four vignettes on the shell suspended within a field of elongated wavy ballflower tendrils, and the entire arrangement segmented and enclosed within encrusted minutely beaded linear borders. With slender hollow-triangular blade etched and gilt with small scrollwork motifs on a blued panel at the forte. In its original wooden scabbard covered in white fishskin, with iron chape blued and gold-encrusted en suite with the hilt, and with gilt-brass locket decorated with chased panels of scrollwork on the outer side, pricked with the cutler’s signature ‘Bibb Newport Street’ on the inner face, fitted with suspension ring, and with iron suspension hook blued and gold-encrusted en suite with the hilt also.