FRANCE, First Empire SCHNITZLER & KIRSCHBAUM, Solingen. Superior officer's sword. Silver-plated bronze mounting, single-branch guard featuring a bearded man with ram's horns, two quillons ending in rosettes, inverted pelte shield pommel with bearded mascaron or Minerva profile, domed keyboard decorated with an oval Minerva medallion in feet, on a background of ribbed gadroons or chased foliage. Plain white mother-of-pearl spindle plates, possibly replaced. Triangular blade engraved with gilded trophies and flowers on a blued ground in the first third. Signed S. & K. on the heel. Blade length: 77 cm - Total length: 90.4 cm. Without scabbard. Worn silvering and blade decoration, one cracked mother-of-pearl plate. Phillip Jacob SCHNITZLER & Wilhelm Bernhard KIRSCHBAUM, fourbisseurs, whose factory was active in Solingen between 1808 and 1864, when it was taken over by the next generation.