Sword of a Page of Honour to King George V (1910-1936)

Straight narrow spear-pointed blade with lenticular cross-section. Blade 58cm in length including washer, the sword 70.8cm overall. Gilt brass recurved crossbar hilt with finials in the form of dog’s heads, smooth ivory grip, gilt brass pommel in the form of a horse’s head. Bullion sword knot. Scabbard of white painted leather with brass throat and chape pieces.

The throat and chape pieces of the scabbard are engraved with foliate motifs. The blade is etched on both sides with the crown and cypher of King George V, flowers and foliate motifs. The ricasso of the blade is etched on one side with the retailer’s name ‘WILKINSON & SON 57 AND 58. JERMYN ST. ST. JAMES’S. LONDON.’ It is etched on the other side with a six-pointed star inside which is a stylised ‘W’ indicating the manufacturer, the Wilkinson Sword Company.

The Pages of Honour are boys appointed to serve the British monarch at state occasions, most notably carrying the long train of his various robes that would otherwise drag behind him. They should not be confused with the Pages of the Royal Household, who are paid adult servants, although both roles date back to the practice of young noblemen serving other lords in return for education and training in the medieval period.

Since 1689 there have been four Pages of Honour at any one time – for some events only two are required, allowing the two not holding the monarch’s train to carry that of the consort, but the Robe of Estate worn at a Coronation requires all four. A second group of four is therefore required for the train of a royal consort at the Coronation.

Becoming a page to the monarch was a prestigious honour given at that time to sons of courtiers and prominent noble families. Given their origins these young men often went on to become notable figures in their own right: among George V’s pages were Sir John ‘Jock’ Colville, who was private secretary to Prime Ministers Chamberlain, Churchill and Attlee, Major-General Lloyd-Verney, who commanded the 7^th Armoured Division in WW2, and Lieutenant-Colonel Rowland Baring, Earl of Cromer, who became Governor of the Bank of England and later Ambassador to the United States. Today pages of honour are almost exclusively close friends and family of the monarch.

The specifications as of 1921 for the sword to be carried by a Page as part of his official dress were as follows:

Sword. — Short, with cross guard and horsehead pommel, ivory grip, white leather scabbard with gilt mounts.

Sword Knot. — Gold lace strap and bullion tassel.

This model of sword was used for no other function and would almost certainly have been bought along with the page’s uniform. As shown on this example the firm Wilkinson & Son was the retailer – probably the sole retailer.

Wilkinson & Son was a tailor specialising in court & diplomatic dress at the highest levels, including tailoring the coronation robes worn by Knights of the various orders, the ermine robes and coronets of the Peers, and even the robes of the monarchs themselves from William IV to George VI. Based on Jermyn Street, which is to this day a centre of British tailoring excellence, it would make perfect sense for them to have produced the dress for royal pages. However, they were not sword cutlers and should not be confused with the Wilkinson Sword Company.

This other Wilkinson was founded in 1772 as the business of the noted gunmaker Henry Nock of London, later inherited and renamed by his partner and son-in-law James Wilkinson. It enjoyed great success and was from the late 19^th century the premier swordmaking company in Britain, employing around 300 people in its factory on Oakley Street, Chelsea and with a showroom on Pall Mall. It absorbed many rival firms including Reeves, Mole, Pillin and Thurkle and took an active role in the design process for British military swords like the 1908 Pattern for Cavalry. Despite its near monopoly its business in razor blades and other items eclipsed the declining sword trade and Wilkinson stopped producing swords in 2005, some of its machinery being sold on to Pooley Sword which continues to supply the British Army.

It is worth considering how many of these swords could still exist: George V only had 31 pages of honour over his reign, and that number includes the first group of four that carried the train at his coronation, who had served his late father and therefore would already have had swords with the cypher of Edward VII. Queen Mary’s four Coronation pages may not have carried swords at all and she probably needed no other pages after that date: archived pictures of non-Coronation state occasions appear to confirm that two pages carried the King’s train and two carried the Queen’s.

This example is complete with its knot and is in excellent condition. The blade is immaculately bright and clean, all of its etching crisp. The ivory grip has no cracking or discolouration due to age, only one tiny black spot near the pommel on one side (>0.5mm). Some surface level latitudinal cracking and one small chip to the white paint of the scabbard. Some rubbing and very minor denting to the scabbard fittings.

Due to the ivory used in the grip, this sword cannot be exported from the UK. It has been declared and registered as antique ivory under the provisions of the UK Ivory Act and therefore can be sold within the UK. Please note that this is a one-time non-transferable registration: if you purchase this sword and wish to resell it you must register it again.