Pattern 1796 light cavalry sabre

The Pattern 1796 light cavalry sabre was a curved, single-edged British cavalry sword used mainly by light dragoons and hussars and by the King's German Legion light cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars. Captain John Gaspard Le Marchant, who had seen the poor swordsmanship of British horsemen and the clumsy 1788 pattern swords in Flanders during the French Revolutionary Wars, designed it with the Birmingham sword cutler Henry Osborn, taking inspiration from Turkish, Mamluk, Moorish and Hungarian blades. The blade, about 32.5 to 33 inches long with one broad fuller on each side, widened near the point so that slashing cuts landed harder. The hilt was a plain stirrup with a single iron knucklebow, kept light so that any trooper could use it. Prussia copied it as the 1811 pattern, or Blücher sabre, and Portuguese and Spanish cavalry used it as well. It is remembered as one of the finest cutting swords ever made in quantity.