Posts: 5,981 Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Thu 30 Apr, 2009 9:21 am
The ring or loop solution appears to have been common in Germany/Austria in the late 15th and early 16th c. You see it in that image from IMAREAL and in Dürer as well. Long-hafted hammers were common in this culture/period, too. Those are the length of a walking cane, and often shown held that way, hand on the head, hammer face forward, iron-shod foot on the ground. Search the IMAREAL site for "streithammer" and "hammer" and you'll get some good ideas (you'll get hundreds of images, so be sure to let the page load before viewing any--otherwise the page will have to reload every time you view one).
http://www.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/realonline/