- Identification and Creation
-
- Object Number
- 1943.1661.A
- People
-
Unidentified Maker
- Title
- Sword
- Other Titles
- Former Title: Lafayette's Sword?
- Classification
- Weapons and Ammunition
- Work Type
- sword
- Date
- c. 1791
- Culture
- French
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/229731
- Physical Descriptions
-
- Medium
- Blade: steel with gold-filled incised decoration and inscriptions; handle: braided brass wire over fabric on a wooden core; guard: cast brass and gilt bronze, with profile portrait of Lafayette enframed in draped flags; lion-headed pummel: cast brass with gilt bronze decoration
- Technique
- Cast
- Dimensions
- length: 95 cm (37 3/8 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
- inscription: inscribed on the recto of the blade: Pour la Nation
- inscription: inscribed on the verso of the blade: Vaincrir ou mourir
- Acquisition and Rights
-
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.1661.A
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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- Descriptions
-
- Description
- inscribed on the recto of the blade: "Pour la Nation"; inscribed on the verso of the blade: "Vaincrir ou mourir"
- Publication History
-
Objets et Souvenirs concernant le General La Fayette: Catalogue of the Girardin Family Collection (n.d.), p. 7
Washington, Lafayette, Franklin: Portraits, Books, Manuscripts, Prints, Memorabilia, for the Most Part from the Collections of the University, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1944), p. 51, cat. 115
Agnes Mongan, Harvard Honors Lafayette, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), pp. 80-81, no. 25, repr.
- Exhibition History
-
Washington Lafayette Franklin, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/22/1944 - 05/28/1944
-
This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu