The sword attached to this picture I highly doubt is from the 19th century. I have never heard of that racist organization you referred to but will just say that I doubt strongly they would add KT to it unless they had their own KT abbreviation that was meaningful to them. The only two organizations where the knight of Malta and Templar were tied together was during the crusades and more modernly with the masons. Our symbols have copyrights and I've seen first hand what happens when someone uses one inappropriately. Back in the 1800 and during the Morgan Affair, it's possible some organizations talk advantage of the chaos in our order and used symbols. Nonetheless, this sword is almost certainly not from the 1800s and is certainly masonic.
I would agree that age is hard to determine here without knowing the maker. I can find all the various elements of this sword in the Ames 1889 catalog, however Ames was bought by M.C. Lilley in1923, and this one seems to have the Lilley "flavor" and the fittings appear to be pot metal, except for the pommel.
My opinion on its age is a bit less "science" based than yours. In my experience these types of swords that were from the 1800s were more flimsy and a lot less decorative. The blades were thinner as well.
RA, Order of the Red Cross, circa 1840, no edge but stout enough to break bones.
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. RA, Eminent Commander, Wisconsin Grand Commandery circa 1888 , dated by the owners time of office.
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fairly ornate
powrsurge, After careful study of the Ames catalog with a magnifier last night I found this:
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notice swords 18 & 19,
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now look at the scabbard on # 14 , mixed and matched. You are right, Knights Templar. it seems they used the same middle mount as Tabor. This catalog is for 1882-1889. In all fairness though, if you look back through the thread, my first assessment was Templar- Sir Knight.
Bob, your Templar sword was the result of a contest for a new sword design held by M.C.Lilley in 1894. Lilley was in business from 1867 till 1924 when they bought out Henderson-Ames, after that the swords were marked Lilley-Ames until about 1954 when Lilley, in turn, was bought out by a company named Ward. Lilley also bought out Horstman in 1923 , those swords were marked Horstman, Phila. From 1923 till around 1945 .