A RARE GERMAN INFANTRY OFFICER'S DEGEN, CIRCA 1880, MOUNTED WITH AN EARLIER BLADE CARRIED BY AN 18TH CENTURY OFFICER IN THE SERVICE OF CARL THEODORE, PRINCE ELECTOR, COUNT PALATINE AND DUKE OF BAVARIA
with slender two-stage blade, the upper portion decorated over its length on both sides with a serpent-like flattened medial ridge with bevelled wavy edges and cut with a filed chequered pattern, the lower portion blued, decorated on both sides with a series of filed indented designs including, on one face, the Electoral cipher "CT" together with a series of finely etched and gilt motifs, including a bust portrait of the Elector beneath his named scroll and the collar of the Bavarian Order of Saint George suspended from the Electoral Crown, and the same devices framing on the reverse side the arms both of the Elector Palatine and of Wittelsbach jointly suspending the Electoral cipher; with regulation gilt-brass hilt including up-turned double shell-guard, the pommel, the quillon and the knuckle-guard each decorated with leaf ornament cast in low relief, original wire-bound grip, and in its original scabbard
84 cm; 33 in blade

The blade was presumably carried by a forebear who had served in the army of the Elector Carl Theodore, probably during the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-9)