Posts: 272 Location: Scotland
Thu 21 Nov, 2019 9:30 am
Now, the disclaimer I must say is, I'm not holding the object, I only have your photos to go by, and as such, this is nothing more than my personal opinion.
I hate to be a naysayer and disappoint, but I would not put a bid on it if it were on auction, and I'm very suspect of its origin. I feel that your gut instinct, that there is something wrong with this is very accurate.
As has already been said, its not a Type Xa - its closest to Type XV, a sword from C. 1350-1500's in general form, there arent too many Type XVs that pre-date 1350. But that opens a number of question-marks, because the hilt is atypical for that sort of era, being very simple and dated for that period.
every period has particular fashions, and the flat Form G pommel I've seeing in the photos is one that's normally seen on earlier hilts. Its not a clear indicator, because you do get many later swords with that style still, but it is a warning symbol.
The same applies to the style 1 cross - its not in itself a clear identifier of date, you do find them later, but combined with the Form G pommel, it creates a dated style for that blade.
The big flashing warning sign really is the weight, 1.65kg. That is WAY too heavy for a real one of that length. You do get heavy examples, I've handled similarly weighted Type XV swords from the Castillon Hoard, but they have a 92cm blade, an overall length of about 110cm, but more importantly have far more structured geometry than this one, which is exceptionally vague in
cross-section.
But that weight is about what you'd expect for something made of a bar of steel roughly chopped to shape, given a half-arsed grind to make it sort of slightly sharp-ish, and then dunked in acid to corrode down - the work of a lazy modern faker.
Combine the rather dated hilt form with the excessive mass, and it screams forgery to me.
There are a number of other details that I'm spotting too, but I'd rather not list them all. The makers of this one are probably reading these threads, and I'd rather not help them along with their next product.
In all, it
could be real... but I suspect not. Sorry.