Patt 1827 British & Commonwealth Royal NAVY Officer's SWORD by Edward Thurkle Snr

Some collectors of British military swords will be familiar with the name Thurkle, but relatively few realise how important this family name was in British sword making history

Most collectors can instantly recount all manner of details about Wilkinson, or perhaps even Mole, due to the scales of their businesses & military contracts by the end of the 19th Cent, but Thurkle's name deserves to be remembered in the same category as a handful of smaller but important makers (such as Reeves and Pillin) who produced more swords than most people realise

The Thurkle family specialised in British officers' swords in earlier years, but by the later decades of the 19th Cent the Thurkle name was to be found on officers' swords in the U SA & on cavalry troopers' sabres in India

In the Victorian era there were countless retailers of swords & other military equipment, but very few of these were actually making their own sword blades

The vast majority were purchasing swords, or at least the blades & scabbards, from specialised sword makers then etching their own name & address onto the ricasso

Some retailers hilted the blades themselves & thus described themselves as 'sword makers', but only a few companies were actually making the blades by the middle of the 19th Cent

Thurkle was one such maker of blades, along with the likes of Wilkinson, Mole, Reeves, Pillin & a few others

We often find the proof slugs of these makers on swords marked to & retailed by outfitters

The Thurkle sword making family is not well documented now & sadly their company records were reportedly destroyed in a fire in 1912

However, we do know that they were a dynasty of makers who started business in 1749 & they continued until 1897, when bought-out by the outfitter JR Gaunt

The majority of the surviving antique swords marked to Thurkle (or with a Thurkle proof slug were made under Edward Thurkle senior (lived 1833-1895)