Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent matching Unit Marked Metropolitan Police Long Dress "Walking Out" Bayonet by the well known firm E. & F. Hörster of Solingen. It definitely a custom ordered example, with an extra long blade and "clamshell" guard, and comes complete with its original black leather scabbard and frog.

The handle of the bayonet is lovely solid nickel plated alloy, featuring a lovely decorated "Birds Head" pommel without a bayonet slot, and an upswept cross guard decorated with oak leaves. The "clamshell" guard is embossed with a fantastic spread-winged Imperial style eagle, which is very detailed and faces to the viewer's right. The grip scales are made of beautiful stag horn with an aluminum police insignia firmly attached on one side. These are held with solid aluminum rivets dressed on the reverse and show no wiggle at all. Both cross guard and eagle’s head are in very good condition, showing light wear and a lightly oxidized patina. There is no leather blade buffer present, but we do not know if these were fitted to examples with clamshell guards.

As with most police bayonets we see, there is a unit marking on the reverse guard of the bayonet:

This would probably indicate issue to the Schutzpolizei (Protection Police) of one of the cities or large towns in WWII Germany, possibly Magdeburg or Meissen. The same unit marking is stamped onto the back of the scabbard.

The bayonet has an excellent extra long approximately 42.5 cm (16.75 inches) long nickel plated steel blade, which is not made "cut-down" style like shorter examples, so this is the "Full-length" type. It has a single fuller, and looks like a standard bayonet blade. Blade is nice and bright, of excellent quality, and still has over 95% of the original nickel plating, with just a bit of oxidation and wear.

The ricasso of the bayonet is maker marked E. & F. HÖRSTER / SOLINGEN, while the other side bears the company's trademark downward pointing sword piercing interlocking HHS initials, which is hard to see as it is covered by the clamshell guard. E. & F. Hörster & Co Gmbh is a well-known maker from Solingen, the famous "City of Blades" in Western Germany, which marketed many fine edged weapons. Originally founded in 1850 as "Friedrich Hörster" in 1850, the company was renamed to E. & F. Hörster in 1870 at the behest of Friedrich Emil & Fritz Hörster. The firm lasted long after WWII, finally being declared insolvent in 1996. For more information please see GERMAN KNIFE AND SWORD MAKERS by J. Anthony Carter.

The scabbard is made of fine black leather, fitted with nickel or nickel plated brass, and is in very good condition. The leather does show some age and finish loss, which makes the finish look brown in areas, but it definitely is black for the Metropolitan police. It is held in the correct black leather frog with aluminum rivets, which is in good condition. There is wear and finish loss, but no tears or stitching pulling, and it has a faded maker mark on the back with what looks to be a 1938 date.

This is a wonderful pre war metropolitan police bayonet, an extremely rare example with an extra long blade and clamshell guard. Complete with scabbard and frog, this bayonet is ready to research and display!

Specifications:
Blade Length: 16 3/4"
Blade Style: Single Edged with Fuller
Overall length: 21 3/4”
Crossguard: 2 1/4”
Scabbard Length: 18 1/8”