militaria

[dumb&dummer]

I have an old brass-handled sword bayonet with the following engraved on the back of the blade near the hilt - Mre Nle de ChatA Spbre 1870. The re of the first word, le of the second word, A of the fourth word and bre of the fifth word are raised above the level of the rest of the text and they have " below them. The script is very ornate so I cannot be sure about some letters. If anyone can shed some light on the meaning of the engraving and/or the origins of the bayonet, I would be most grateful

[dundurn]

It's French. The raised letters indicate an abbreviation. It was made at or for the Chatellerault Arsenal. Assuming you have the inscription correctly I would imagine it means something like M(anufacture)? Nationale du Chatellerault Septembre 1870. Long(ish) sword-bayonets like this were used in the Franco-Prussian War and into WWI.

[dundurn]

http://old-smithy.info/bayonets/1866_chassepot .htm

Some pictures here and lots of inscriptions! None seem to quite agree with yours but the important things to match are going to be the length of the blade, whether it's curved or not, cross-section, shape of handle, cross-guard etc and it looks like the number of rivets might be significant as well. Good luck.

[dundurn]

http://arms2armor.com/Bayonets/bayonets.htm

Another website that may come in handy.

[dumb&dummer]

Many thanks dundurn. Your information and suggested websites are proving a great help.