SPANISH ENLISTED MAN’S SWORD

Pattern worn by infantry as well as artillery. Bronze one-piece hilt of French styling, with ribbed grip. 27 1/4" slightly curved s.e. blade, the right side marked Fca DE TOLEDO 1888. Unrest in Spanish colonies led to the Cuban Revolution of 1868 resulting in the Ten Years War followed by an uneasy peace from the Pact of Zanjón in 1878, the Little War of 1879-80, and the Spanish-American War of 1898 which was fought in Cuba, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean Spanish holdings as well as the Pacific, largely the Philippines. This sword dates to the midst of the wars and surely has served in the Spanish-American War during which the majority of surviving examples of this pattern were captured. The blade is quite smooth in the first half with old pitting toward the point.