Civil War CSN Confederate States Navy Cutlass MOLE 'Courtney & Tennent Co.' CSA For Sale

Civil War CSN Confederate States Navy Cutlass MOLE 'Courtney & Tennent Co.' CSA
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Civil War CSN Confederate States Navy Cutlass MOLE 'Courtney & Tennent Co.' CSA:
$13500.00

Wonderful & Historic Original Robert Mole & Sonsproduced Confederate Naval Cutlass, marked by ‘Courtney Tennent & Co.’ Thespine of the cutlass is boldly stamped MOLE and the obverse ricasso is deeplyand clearly stamped with a two-line boxed retailer’s mark ‘Courtney &Tennent Charleston S.C.’ An Absolutely Superb Example which Would Be Nearly Impossible to Upgrade!

The cutlass is a branch brass guard as used on the Mole variant Pattern 1853 cavalrysabers and retains its original scabbard. The blade is full-length and exhibits some of the factory bright polish mixed with a duller pewter patina. The blade shows scattered and small patches of surface oxidation and dark age discolorationalong its entire length on both sides with some small patches of minor surfaceroughness and a small amount of minor pitting. The contrast between thebrighter portions of the blade and the oxidized discoloration results in thephotos making the discoloration appear to be worse than it is. A careful lightcleaning would likely remove much of the discoloration along the length of theblade. The cutlass is in untouched condition and recently surface out of a veryold estate collection. The untouched brass guard has a thickly oxidized bronzepatina with some patches of darker green verdigris. The blade is tightlysecured to the guard and the peen at the rear of the pommel cap is completelyundisturbed. The press-checkered leather grip scales retain fine, crispcheckering with old dust and dirt in the recesses of the checkering. Theleather is in nice condition and other than a few small surface handling marksand scuffs, remains in crisp condition. The original iron pins are in place,securing the grips and the grips have not significantly shrunk or warped. Theoriginal leather washer remains in, untouched in appearance as well. Theoriginal scabbard is in good condition and retains the original black surfacefinish. The leather is relatively solid and strong, although dry and fragile ifmishandled. Both brass mounts are deeply patinized with a rich bronze patinathat matches the hilt of the cutlass very well. Both mounts remain attached bytheir original brass wire staples and are relatively secure. The original brassfrog stud is in place on the face of the throat mount.

Overall Fine Issued and Untouched as Photographed with wear and condition issues as seen or aforementioned. This is a solid, completelyauthentic example that is 100% complete and absolutely textbook correct. This would make an Extraordinary addition to any advanced historic collection of Confederate edged weapons, Confederate NavalArms, or an Archive that focuses on Confederate Imports from Great Britain orPieces Related to Charleston, South Carolina. - Exceptionally RARE (Photos 23 - 24 Digital Reference Only)

A BRIEF HISTORY

In June of 1848 a notice in the Charleston Mercury inCharleston, SC had noted that Gilbert B. Tennent was joining the wholesalehardware business of (W.R.) Morton & (W.C.) Courtney. On June 1, 1849, ayear later, another notice published in the Charleston Mercury announced that“The Subscribers having purchased W.R. Morton’s interest in the concern ofMorton, Courtney & Co. will continue the business under the firm ofCourtney & Tennent. (Signed) W.C. Courtney & G.B. Tennent.” Thus, wasestablished the firm of Courtney & Tennent, which would be a major playerin the importation of goods to the Charleston market for the next decade andhalf and which would help to equip the Confederate Navy during the AmericanCivil War. An additional partner, James B. Evans joined the firm in June of1852, creating the first iteration of the firm of Courtney, Tennent & Co.

The firm was listed in period directories as an importer of“Hardware, Cutlery & c.” and at least initially was focused on thewholesale sale of their imported goods to the retail trade. An 1852advertisement that ran of October 15 of that year in the Charleston DailyCourier listed that the firm was also as an importer and seller of “Tin Plate,Iron Wire, American & Russia Sheet Iron, Solder, Bar Copper, Rivets” andfurther noted that, “A large assortment of the above goods kept constantly on handand will be sold low.” The business was located at 35 Hayne Street inCharleston and like most businesses of the period one of the most fearedbusiness catastrophes was a fire. A May 2, 1854 notice in the Charleston DailyCourier noted that on that day an Underwriters Sale would occur at 186 KingStreet at which the salvaged inventory from a recent fire at Courtney, Tennent& Co would be sold. Among the items listed for sale in the notice were:“Table knives and forks, Pen & Pocketknives, Scissors, Razors, Files,Chisels, Hatchets, Hammers, Saws, Pocketbooks & C. & C.” This partiallist indicates that the firm was well acquainted with the English cutlery tradeand certainly had strong connections within it. As with most firms of theperiod, Courtney, Tennent & Co rebuilt after their fire and returned theirbusiness, despite the financial setback.

In 1858, partner James Evans passed away and the firmreturned to their original business name of simply Courtney & Tennent. Two years later, in June of 1860, both J.Waring Axson and Jasper W. Lillard joined the company as partners and onceagain the Courtney, Tennent & Co moniker was in use. This four-waypartnership would be the ownership of the company through the American CivilWar period. At some point between the 1854 fire and the addition of the newpartners in 1860, the company expanded their imported product lines andapparently began to deal in a wider range of items. The masthead of the firm’sinvoices immediately prior to the Civil War noted that the firm was “DirectImporters & Wholesale Dealers in Hardware, Cutlery, Guns, Pistols, &c.”As the Civil War erupted, the company used their contacts in Great Britain tomake a variety of imported goods available for the Confederacy. It is at thispoint that the company’s work to support and supply the southern Confederacybecomes somewhat more enigmatic.

Over the years two very specific forms of Confederate edgedweapons have been specifically associated with the Charleston firm of Courtney,Tennent & Co. These were the Confederate Naval Officer’s Sword, knowcolloquially by modern collectors as the “Dolphin Head” sword and a NavalCutlass that was produced in two variations. All of these edged weapons were manufacturedby Robert Mole & Sons of Birmingham and are found marked with a two-lineboxed cartouche that reads COURTNEY & TENNENT / CHARLESTON. S.C. It isquite likely that Courtney, Tennent & Company’s contacts in the Englishcutlery trade led to their association with Mole for the production of edgedweapons.

At the outbreak of the war Gilbert Tennent traveled toEngland for a multitude of reasons. One was clearly to conduct business onbehalf of his firm with the numerous contacts that he had with the industrialand manufacturing businesses of Great Britain. He was also asked to representthe Charleston firm of John Fraser & Company in the sale of Confederatecotton bonds to raise funds for the acquisition of military equipment and forthe financial support of the war. John Fraser & Co were intertwined withthe New York firm of Trenholm Brothers as well as the Liverpool (England) basedfirm of Fraser, Trenholm & Company. The principle in all of three of thesecompanies was George Alfred Trenholm of Charleston. Trenholm served as one ofthe primary financiers of the Confederate cause and used his financial firms inNew York and most importantly in Liverpool to facilitate many Confederate armspurchases in England. He subsequently arranged the transportation of many ofthese goods via a fleet of blockade runners that he either owned or controlled.Fraser, Trenholm & Company would essentially become the financialclearinghouse for all Confederate governmental purchases in Great Britain andwould eventually be ruined due to the failure of the Confederate governmentwhich resulted in massive defaults on financial obligations on both sides ofthe ocean. It was in this dual capacity as a financial agent for one of theConfederacy’s primary financial supporters and to further the goals of his owncompany that Tennent found himself in the position to influence the type ofequipment purchased by the Confederate Navy.

Tennent was tasked with providing samples of a wide varietyof naval items to the Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory as wellas to Commander James H North who was involved in the procurement ofConfederate naval equipment. Tennent helped to supply items as varied asbuttons and telescopes to the Confederate Navy, as well as a small number ofWilson’s Patent Naval Rifles and of course, the previously mentioned edgedweapons.

There remains some confusion regarding the acquisition ofthese edged weapons by the Charleston importers, as there is little evidencethat they were contracted with by the Confederate government to provide theswords and cutlasses. In the case of the officer’s swords, this is quiteunderstandable as Confederate officers, like their northern brethren, wererequired to purchase their own uniforms, arms and equipment from an allowanceprovided by the army or navy or from their own financial resources. Thus, anofficer purchased his own sword and Courtney, Tennent & Co clearly importedthe “Dolphin Head” swords on a speculative basis for private sale toConfederate naval officers. The Naval Officer’s Sword was of a pattern then inproduction for use by British Naval Officers, so only a change to the motifs ofthe blade etching and guard decorations were necessary to make them appropriateto the southern market.

The cutlasses are somewhat more problematic. They do notfollow any British pattern of the period and in fact are more like some of thesouthern-made cutlasses produced by New Orleans makers like Cook & Brotherand Thomas, Leech & Company. The two types of cutlasses procured by CourtneyTennent & Co from Mole were nominally 25” in overall length withwasp-waisted 20” long spear point blade with a nominally 10 ½” median fuller inthe blade. The blade was reminiscent of the Roman Gladius and bore moreresemblance to the US Model 1832 Heavy (Foot) Artillery Sword and the Frenchsword that it was based upon, than any English cutlass. This same blade profilewas used on a few southern-made naval cutlasses, suggesting that Tennent mayhave provided a sample Thomas, Leech & Company or Cook & Brothercutlass to Mole as a pattern. The balance of the Mole-produced cutlasses wasmuch more English in their design and construction. The southern-made cutlassestypically involved a cast brass hilt that was based upon the US M1832 HeavyArtillery Sword with the addition of a sheet brass basket guard. The Moleproduced cutlass relied upon the tried-and-true English two-piecepress-checkered multi-layer leather grip panels that were secured to thefull-length blade tang that formed the base of the grip with a series of ironpins. Two forms of guards were used by Mole. The most common was a three-branchbrass guard with an oval, forward-swept quillon at the top of the guard. Theguard was essentially the same as the English Pattern 1853 Cavalry Saber guard,although the P1853 saber used an iron rather than brass guard. Interestingly,Mole produced a variant of the P1853 Cavalry Saber for the Confederacy thatused a brass rather than iron guard. The less common variant of the Molecutlass used a sheet iron basket guard that was typical of the British navalcutlasses of the period, but still used the checkered leather grip scales. Anoval buff leather throat washer was included on the face of the guard as well.Both cutlasses were delivered with a brass mounted leather scabbard with alarge button on the face of the throat to engage a belt frog. The cutlasseswere marked MOLE on the upper spine of the blade, just forward of the guard andwere stamped with the Courtney & Tennent mark on the reverse ricasso. So,the design essentially mated a traditional English pattern saber or cutlasshilt with a Roman inspired, southern-style blade. It is my belief that the muchless common sheet iron guard Mole cutlasses were the first ones to be deliveredat Tennent’s request, as they more closely resembled the southern-madecutlasses. I further believe that after these initial deliveries Mole offered toprovide the cutlasses with the brass cavalry style hilt that he was using oncavalry sabers. This would make production sense for Mole as it simplified theprocess and eliminated the manufacture of the other pattern of guard. Mole morethan likely offered to reduce the unit price of the cutlasses if thethree-branch guard was adopted by Tennent. This rationale helps to explain boththe two patterns of cutlass produced by Mole and delivered by Tennent and whythe sheet iron guard examples are quite scarce.

A search of available records of purchases and survivingreceipts in both the files of Courtney, Tennent & Co and the ConfederateNavy show no receipts or orders for Naval Cutlasses from Courtney, Tennent& Co. In fact, most of the receipts in the Confederate Citizen Files folderfor the firm shows receipts for Confederate purchases of hardware, which wasthe primary business of the firm. These receipts cover everything from files toanvils, pad locks to nails and grindstones to sledgehammers, just to name a fewof the items. In the Confederate Naval Files, receipts, and orders forcutlasses from Thomas, Griswold & Company, Cook & Brother and CharlesWellford, among others are present, but none for, or from, Courtney, Tennent& Co. Admittedly the surviving files are far from complete, but the absenceof the firm’s name is strange on the subject of cutlasses.

A clue may be found in a letter dated 10 July 1863 fromCommander James H North, CSN to the Confederate Secretary of the Navy StephenMallory. North was at the time writing from Scotland after a stopover in Londonto check on the progress of the construction of the would-be Confederateiron-clad Alexandra, as well as other ships, in the process of being built forthe Confederacy. Halfway through the letter North notes that:

“As our Navy is now in its infancy, and thinking that itwould be your wish to have a uniformity in everything, I have written to Mr.Tennent, a wholesale hardware merchant of Charleston, now in Liverpool,requesting him to obtain samples of everything we have ordered (rifles andpistols excepted), with the prices attached, so that I may send them to you byLieutenant Whittle, if he should be able to take charge of them. I hope you willapprove of these patterns, as we have gotten them up in much care. Thesepatterns represent the articles ordered by Commander Sinclair and me. Theswords and buttons are the same as used by Captain Semmes and his officers, andI think the same were carried home by Commander Pegram.” North continues laterby saying, “I avail myself of this opportunity to call to the favorable noticeof the department the obligations we are under to Mr. G.B. Tennent, of the firmCourtney & Tennent of Charleston and to Mr. James Galbraith, of the houseof Patrick Henderson & Co of Glasgow. These gentlemen have been untiring intheir zeal and efforts to assist us in every way in the good cause that we areengaged in.”

From this correspondence it is clear that South was alreadyprocuring naval material from Tennent, in particular swords and buttons,although it is not clear if by “swords” he means cutlasses, naval officer’sswords or both. As a few Confederate ships were built or repurposed in Englandand Scotland, it would make sense to procure their arms and equipment “on site”during the construction process. Thus, it seems likely that much of thematerial provided by Courtney, Tennent & Company was delivered to shipsunder construction or recently completed in Great Britain and was not shippedthrough the blockade for use, rather it was delivered directly to the shipsprior to their putting out to sea. This may explain why there are no receipts ororders in the Confederate Navy files, as these orders may have all been made inGreat Britain and the bills paid there as well. Certainly, the Confederate Navywas buying a substantial amount of equipment from Tennent and his partners, asNorth notes in the letter that the CS Navy should be cognizant of the“obligations we are under to Mr. G.B. Tennent, of the firm Courtney &Tennent of Charleston”. Clearly as of July 10, 1863, the Confederate Navy owedmoney to Courtney Tennent & Co.

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