Quote:
Originally Posted by
MattW
Thanks for the help guys. I was waiting to see if anyone else would catch the "Cellebrated" misspelling. I guess we will not know the maker, but that is fine. I am definitely doing a restoration with more of a light touch. The blade just got cleaned up in the vibratory tumbler, and the scales will need a little straightening and just a light polish. The rosette washers were saved by carefully drilling out the pins. I will post some after pictures when everything is back together.
Oh yeah, 'Cellebrated' isn't precisely a misspelling. More likely it's intentionally old fashioned. It was commonly spelled that way in at least the first half of the 1700's. B. Swartz, writing to Henry Johnson in 1724 said (this is a tiny, tiny snippet):
A ffimaous Fransiscan after he had given his Saint more power than God made his Complim' to the Vice King, bringing the Virgin down in a Chariot drawn by Six white Bulls to Fetch him to heaven for his Sanctity, and as he's going to Accept of it he Cryd out Gaurds, Gaurds, Halbardears, Stop him, stop him in the King's name, stop him for the Benefitt of his Church & Kingdoms, Oh your Excellency Leave us not for we Perish. -- Much had I to do to suppress a Loud Laughter and was Forced to duck below the ---- to vent myself; his Sermon & Modes was Cellebrated to the sky so I Joynd with the Learned world to Comend it.
(Excerpted from The Procedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1864-1865)