ITALIAN NAVAL OFFICER’S SWORD 1930’S

Gilt brass hilt with folding side guard, Tape wrapped black leather grip. 31” broad fullered straight blade decorated with military motifs first half. Leather covered scabbard with gilt mounts, incomplete, lacking the portion below the middle mount. Dating to the period of Naval rearmament. During the 1930s, under Mussolini, Italy strongly pursued a policy of naval rearmament; by 1940, the Regia Marina was the fourth-largest navy in the world. During the Spanish Civil War, Italy provided massive support to the Nationalists with 58 submarines and destroyers conducting operations against the Spanish Republican Navy.