Boston Silver Hilt Small Sword, ca. 1750
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GUEST:
So this sword hung in my grandmother's living room, and she always told me that the sword was George Washington's dress sword and was given to a relative, um... believed to be an aide-de-camp to George Washington. So I did a little bit of paperwork, a little research.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And I believe this belonged to Josiah Pratt, who is seven-times-removed grandfather.
APPRAISER:
Nice, nice. (clears throat) Well, it more than likely has nothing to do with George Washington.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Sorry about that.
GUEST:
That's okay.
APPRAISER:
But there's some good news.
GUEST:
Tell me.
APPRAISER:
When I saw the sword, we instantly realized a couple of things about it. First of all, the blade, it's German-made, the blade is.
GUEST:
German? Hm.
APPRAISER:
Yup. They were being imported in big numbers. They shipped barrels of these over. And, um, sometimes they would be hilted here. Sometimes they would be hilted in England and shipped over, but this one's a Boston hilt. So everything you said about Josiah Pratt really fits with this sword. He was a militia officer. He was born in 1719 in Stoughtonham, Massachusetts, which later became Foxborough, Massachusetts, in 1778.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And your ancestor was instrumental in helping to form Foxborough, along with helping to write the Suffolk Resolves. But he was a militia officer. He had been a militia officer most of his life, and he needed to have a badge of rank, and the badge of rank for these people would have been a small sword just like this. This is a little nicer than most, but all of the swords from this time period that I have found are all similar in form, but not as nice as this one. You got a really special one.
GUEST:
Thank you.
APPRAISER:
Um... It's missing the wire wrap, which you know, sadly. But the pommel form, these ferrules, everything is, is Boston to us. Have you ever had it appraised before?
GUEST:
No, never.
APPRAISER:
Well, we think it would be worth, at auction, in the $3,000 to $5,000 range, given the history that it has. If it had Boston touchmarks on it, it would probably be an $8,000 to $12,000 range at auction.
GUEST:
Oh, wow.
APPRAISER:
But with the history you've got and the form, I think we can really identify it to Captain Josiah Pratt, and that's wicked cool. (laughs) It is, it's...
GUEST:
I love it.
APPRAISER:
You know, when I saw it and I saw the story, I went, "Oh, my God. This is fantastic." So I was pretty excited to see it. And thank you for bringing it in today.
GUEST:
Thank you, Joel.
APPRAISER:
It's awesome.
GUEST:
Awesome.
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