Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

  • Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword

Excavated 1728 Pattern Spanish Bilbo Clamshell Sword
Found on a beach in Martinique
Martinique, French Antilles
Blade: Late 17th - Early 18th century
Hilt: Early - Mid- 18th century
Steel
Blade: 47cm
Hilt & Blade: 59,1cm
Hilt, Blade, Sheath: -cm
Collection Date: 2023


Spanish Colonial sword in the style of the 1728 pattern. The blade is an old rapier blade straight, narrow, and double- edged with repeated engraved decorative markings on the center plane halfway of the length. There is an old break to the last half length. Sword nicks to its entirety, some very deep. The blade is slightly bent. It was mentioned on online forums that this blade could be Italian, French, or a Solingen blade, possibly from the same workshop as Enrique Coel, from the late 17th century. The steel crossguard is "S" shaped with recurved quillions, knuckle guard with down turned quillion bar. It is missing its steel clamshells (pas d' ane), wood hilt, and steel pommel bulb.

This sword was supposedly found by the seller's wife's grandfather, working as an engineer in Martinique in the 1950s. The sword has been in the family for around 70 years. He found some metal sticking out of the sand on the beach and discovered it was an old sword. After digging to find the blade, tang first, then found the guard, which was loose, and continued to pull the rest of the blade out. He was unable to find the remaining pieces after more digging. The depth was about two feet.

These swords were popular from the mid- 17th, late- 18th century, and were used by many different states. Known as the Bilbo sword, from Bilbao, the steel was sent to Toledo to be forged and exported to the new world during Spanish colonization. Many were sold to countries such as France and England. It is hard to pinpoint the actual user of these swords since they were widely used and dispersed throughout many users and regions in many variations. Bilbos were mass produced with different blades mounted and used by both state navies and privateers (pirates). Martinique, during this period, was a vast pirate haven and slave trade port with numerous battles fought around the island between the French, Spanish, Dutch, and English.

France hiring buccaneers for both economic and battle advantages during the golden age and using the island as a slave trade port. It was the main hideout for the pirate Bartholomew Roberts. Martinique was the home to many naval  wars and battles between the French, Spanish, Dutch, and English. These include the Second Anglo- Dutch War (1667), Dutch invasion (1674), Nine Years War (1693), Seven Years War (1759) & (1762), American Revolutionary War (1779). This style of Spanish sword was in production from the late 1500’s to the late 1700s, being adopted as the first regulation Pattern sword of Spain in 1728, known as the 1728 pattern bilbo Spanish sword or boca de caballo. Whether the story given is true or not, this sword is nevertheless an excavated battle sword which many sword contact nicks.