Anikin K. (2015). Shpaga markshejdera V.F. Ludlova [Mineral Surveyor V.F.Ludlov’s Small Sword]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 1, pp. 118 — 123.
Abstract: The article deals with an interesting sample of an edged weapon from the collection of the Sverdlov Regional Museum of Local Lore. It is a small sword with a made-to-order blade which belonged to a mineral surveyor V.F.Ludlov. The weapon is of good provenance. It appeared in the museum in March 1913. Gottlib Wilhelm Ludlov was born in 1779 in Turingia, got an education in “mining&quarrying” and entered into the Rusian service in 1805. The last reference to him dates back to 1825. The blade of the small sword which is an officer infantry sword of 1798 production year was specially made in Zlatoust, one of the Russian centers of edged arms manufacturing in the beginning of 1820s. The attribution is based on an early variant of the manufacturer’s mark “Shaff and sons”. The features of both composition and technique of the design on the blade permit the author to suggest that it was made by a famous Russian muster Ivan Bushuev. The blade was probably ordered to the Ludlov’s fortieth anniversary. Other examples of such small swords used by mineral surveyors aren’t known for today and this fact makes this particular small sword to some extant unique.
Keywords: small sword, the Sverdlov Regional Museum of Local Lore, mineral surveyor V.F.Ludlov, Zlatoust, Shaff and sons”, Ivan Bushuev.