CHARLESTON, S.C. (CN) — Greg Walter has been dealing in antique swords for almost 25 years. The online retailer has seen it all — jewel-encrusted daggers, battle-scarred sabers and German Zweihänders. He recently purchased a 19th Century smallsword used in the court of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, whose brief and turbulent reign ended in front of a firing squad.
But among those thousands of blades, he can’t say he’s encountered the most important relic to have gone missing in South Carolina — the Sword of State. The approximately 4-foot weapon with a silver hilt and wavy blade disappeared more than 80 years ago from the Senate, where it was wielded daily in ceremonies.
Pleas for the sword’s return before the state’s tricentennial celebration went unanswered. A recent $100,000 reward has turned up nothing.
Theories abound about what happened to the blade. A relic hunter might have sneaked it out of the Senate in his pant’s leg. It might have disappeared after a practical joke went awry.
One antique dealer joked it was likely sitting in a senator’s attic.
Nonetheless, the search continues.
“I’d love to be able to find it,” Senate Sergeant At Arms Chuck Williams said. “That would be tremendous for our state.”
The ceremonial sword dates back to 1704, when Governor Nathaniel Johnson sent a receipt to the provincial Commons House of Assembly for a “Sword of State … to be made use of for the public service,” according to research by historian Nic Butler.
The sword’s origins are murky. The governor spent 26 British pounds on the weapon, or a few thousand in today’s dollars, but it’s unclear where it came from.
Walter, the owner of AntiqueWeaponStore.com, said it was unlikely the blade was made locally. Sword smithing was a highly specialized craft and European guilds closely protected their techniques. It was more common in the Colonial Era for European blades to be imported and mounted on their hilts by a local smith, which may have been the case with the Sword of State.
It was an unusual weapon. The hilt was more typical of a rapier, but the flamberge blade resembled that of a two-handed sword, albeit shorter, Walter said.
“It is possible that the SC sword could have used a cut down German 2-handed sword blade,” he wrote in an email.
Butler said in an email the sword’s unusual design might have had some special meaning to the governor who commissioned it. Johnson’s coat-of-arms includes a sword with a similar wavy, or flamberge, blade, raising the question of whether he chose the weapon to match his family crest.
While South Carolina is the only state with its own sword, ceremonial weapons are not unheard of in American government. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the creation of a ceremonial mace in one of its first resolutions. Pursuant to House rules, the sergeant-at-arms can be called upon to wield the weapon against unruly members.
South Carolina’s House of Representatives also has a ceremonial mace, which has itself twice gone missing. It was taken by British sympathizers during the American Revolution and again in 1971 by a disgruntled former Statehouse employee, who was arrested in Florida after FBI agents found the weapon in the trunk of his car, according to news reports.
The Sword of State belonged to the office of the governor for decades and was wielded by law enforcement officials during inaugurations and other civic occasions in the English colony, according to Butler.
After the American Revolution, custody of the sword was transferred from the governor’s office to the South Carolina Senate, where it hung from the front of the senate rostrum during daily sessions and was carried by the sergeant-at-arms on all state occasions.
