Exonumia - Secret Societies, Fraternal Orders/Organizations

This is another very scarce, if not rare style fraternal sword, believed to be from one of the following fraternities - Knights of Malta, Knights Templar, or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. I state this because the sword cross-guard bears an eight-pointed "Maltese" cross used by both Knights of Malta and Knights of St. John (aka Hospitallers from the Island of Malta); the scabbard bears a Templar cross on both the throat and drag.
This is an older fraternal sword and I tentatively date it from about the late 1700s to the mid-1800s. This puts it in line with the Naopleonic period. In 1798, the order of Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (1058-1798), having been in existence over seven hundred years, was extinguished by Napoleon when he seized the Island of Malta while on his way to Egypt.
This sword may also have a Teutonic Knights association, but that also brings us back to Napoleon. In 1809 Napoleon orderd the dissolution of the Teutonic Knights; the Order lost its remaining secular holdings to Napoleon's vassals and allies. In 1834 it was again re-established but never regained its holdings and wordly status, becoming a purely religious order in 1929.

This sword has an unsharpened, single-edged, combat-style blade with deep single fuller on both sides; blade length is ~29-3/8" and ~5/16" thick by ~1-1/16" wide at ricasso. Unknown manufacturer.
The hilt is of brass furniture with red leather grip bound by decorated brass ribbon wire; the pommel is in the shape of an oval with a medial band displaying various geometric shapes; the guard bears a Maltese Cross in the center (both sides) with the quillons - slightly upward swept - in the shape of the left and right portions of a Maltese Cross (or Cross Pattée), the extremity of each pattée notched at a deep angle.
The scabbard is constructed of a red leather body with gilt brass throat and drag (see images).

Good condition overall with very-very light pitting in several areas on the blade; this will certainly clean up. Scabbard is broken in half and may have two other separations obscured by black tape (see images).
Overall length in scabbard is ~37-1/4"; overall length out of scabbard is ~35-7/8"; blade length is ~29-3/8" and ~5/16" thick by ~1-1/16" wide at ricasso.

This is a very nice Texas Masonic Sword - with hanger chains - once owned by noted Mason, Knight, and author, J. Lee Zumwalt (author of A Short History of the Grand Commandery, Knights Templar of Texas, 1881-1955 circa 1957). The sword was manufactured by The Henderson-Ames Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan, circa 1893-1923. It is a beautiful Masonic sword, with etched blade once covered in gold wash (some small amount remains); name etched into the blade is "J. Lee Zumwalt". The scabbard is gilt and engraved into the body is the name "J. Lee Zumwalt".

This item must be paid in advance with certified funds - bank check or bank money order - no credit card payments will be accepted.
This item may actually show "OUT OF STOCK" if you are attempting to use the "SHOPPING CART" method of payment or ordering; these items must be ordered by e-mail or phone and - as stated previously - must be paid in advance via bank check or bank money order.

As you might guess, we receive a large amount of requests for identification and appraisal of various arms and armor. I urge you in advance to peruse the Arms Identification pages on that section of the website; this may save you some money. Many common weapons and related can be found there. If that does not work for you, I will try to help directly, but at a fee. I will also buy your items if you wish to sell after identification or informal appraisal. If you decide to sell, I will credit or refund you the total amount of the identification or appraisal fee, once the item for sale is received in-house and a price agreed upon.



Please note:

• This is the price for the identification of one item. I will supply a basic identification and a basic value (if requested).
• I will not specifically name the variations in a particular model, only the variant model designation. This is a basic service.
• I will need one overall image, generally no larger than a 8x10 desktop type photo in jpg/jpeg format and cropped to the subject matter only. I will not accept any other format or compressed/zipped images. I will ask for additional photos if necessary. E-mail these to Identify; your order number must be included in the subject line.
• Please do not e-mail single image files larger than 250kb, no more than 500kb total for multiple images; I will not open them if they exceed these limits.
• If you E-mail or snail-mail any images to me for use in identification of an item, I reserve the right to use - without further contact - those images on my website, without compensation to you (other than my efforts to assist you, however minimal the result may actually be).
• If you choose to snail-mail images, please make sure you have copies or your originals retained for yourself. We do not return images in any format and they become the property of Arms to Armor - The History Store without compensation to you for any use - past, present, or future.
• I will also need basic dimensions and description of the item being identified. Please add these to the text box in the shopping cart or e-mail as above.
• Be sure to put your order number in the subject field of any e-mails pertaining to the identification request.
• Fee must be paid in advance and is nonrefundable; if sending a check, make payable to The History Store and state Identification Service in your memo field; mail to the address below. Payment must accompany any request.
• We will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Once again, this is a very basic service.
• Research materials I have available are quite substantial; however, on some items, information within those materials might be quite sparse.