Solid half-basket hilted sword, which belonged to Admiral Sir Joseph Nias (1793-1879). The hilt of the sword consists of a gilt solid half-basket guard, with a folding flap on the inside. The sword has raised bars and a crown and anchor badge. The sword has a lion's-head pommel and back-piece, mane extending only one-third down the back. The white fish-skin grip, bound with three gilt wires. The curved steel blade has a round back and a double-edged spear point. The obverse of the blade is engraved in the centre with the Royal arms and mottoes, there is a crown above, and a lion and unicorn below. The reverse of the blade is engraved with a crown and foul anchor motif. The black leather scabbard has one gilt locket with two rings and chape.

The sword comes complete with a full dress-belt of a Flag Officer of 1856. The belt is made of blue morocco leather; it is 38mm wide in the girdle, with a single, 25mm wide, sword sling. The girdle is embroidered in gold, with acorns and oak leaves down the middle and is margined with a straight line near each edge. The belt has gilt mountings, with a circular clasp at the front, 51mm in diameter, with laurel-embossed edges, a crown, an anchor and a laurel in the centre. The belt has embossed carriage buckles, plain girdle buckles and rings and a plain strong gilt hook attached to the ring to suspend the sword.

It is difficult to date this sword accurately as the parts from which it is made are of different dates. The hilt and the blade are similar to the regulation pattern of 1833, but the scabbard date to 1847. The assumption must be that Admiral Sir Joseph Nias acquired the sword in 1835, when he was promoted to Captain, and when new regulations came out, in 1847, he fitted the new pattern scabbard to the original hilt and blade to avoid purchasing an entirely new sword.

The sword-belt could not originally have had any connection with the sword, in the first place because it is a Flag Officer's belt, and the sword is that of a Commissioned Officer below Flag Rank, and secondly the 1847 scabbard with its one locket was fitted to a waist belt with two short slings of equal length (178mm) so that the sword would hang straight up and down at the wearer's side.

Admiral Sir Joseph Nias was born in 1793, he entered the Royal Navy on the 19th November 1807; he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on the 26th December 1820; to Commander on the 11th November 1827; to Captain on the 13th July 1835. He became a CB on the 29th June 1841; a Rear-Admiral on the 14th February 1857; a Vice-Admiral on the 12th September 1863; an Admiral (ret'd) on the 18th October 1867; a KCB in 1867 and he died in 1879.