Hello! I read the pinned post at the top and believe this is a sterling hunting whip made in London(?) Can anyone help figure out the date? Thank you in advance for your help!
The assay date on your silver mounted whip is 1945. The maker’s mark, ESA, is that of Swaine & Adeney Ltd, ESA being Edward Swayne Adeney.
Phil
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Thank you so much! The year WW2 ended - here’s a video of Churchill announcing it in London
Interesting item. Side saddle crops came in two main types. One of them has a handle, much like a walking stick handle often made of deer horn. The other type had no handle and was simply used to apply pressure to the off-side of the horse where there is no leg.
The difference between both of these hunting crops and the standard item is it had no extended flexible thong with a whip cord on the end.
None of these three types was designed to whip or hit the horse, although I cannot say that it was never used that way. It was built either to apply pressure to the legless offside side of the horse, or if it had a handle also to hook open and close gates and if it had a whip, to make a sharp crack which was designed to signal hounds.
Typically the huntsman’s whip had a white cord on the end and everybody else’s the cord was plain or red.
Here is a link to someone selling these items fo review of the types. The host incorrectly refers to them as whips.
https://www.sportingcollection.com/whips/w1448/w1448.html
Here also isa link to the store today where smart city gents still buy their tightly furled brollies.
Finally here is a picture of a lady hunting side-saddle in Ireland. She carries a crop with a handle and you can see it on the har side carried just ahead of her knee.
CRWW