Howdy Folks,

I was browsing through the new catalogue at Hermann Historica http://www.hermann-historica-ohg.de, and I stumbled upon this stunning sword. There was a thread about owning antiques and I said that I'd rather own a sword that I could use, but after seing this piece I think I would have bided on it if I could afford it. For some reason this sword seemed "special"!?!?!? Or maybe its just my obsession with XIIIa and XIIa. This one looks like XIIIa to me. Is the cross-section hexagonal, or is it just my imagination? Anyhow I do not have $4000 to spend on an antique now.............maybe later..........much, much later..........

Directly form the web-site
"German, beginning of the 15th century. Heavy blade with a fuller on both sides. Brass cross inlaid on one side. Straight quillons with slightly thickened finials. Tang has deeply stamped smith mark. Slightly oval disk pommel, with the remnants of a stamped cross on one side. The chape which belongs to the sword is included. Cleaned and conserved excavation discovery. The surface has been partly restored by polishing. Length 128.5 cm."

Enjoy it,
Alexi

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brass cross inlaid

Great sword. Found this one there too. I wonder if the rayskin grip was added later? (most likely)

The text:
Italy, around 1480. Broad tapering blade with short double fullers. Both sides have stamped dot and sawtooth marks. Iron quillons slightly bent toward the blade with chiseled groove decoration. Sharkskin grip cover. Disk pommel with an antique silver coin set into one side with the likeness of Julius Caesar and a half round gem (Serpentine?) on the reverse. Length 99.5 cm.
High quality sword of the early Italian Renaissance.

WHY, OH WHY, WAS I BORN GOOD-LOOKING INSTEAD OF RICH?!?! :lol:

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Some very neat stuff.

If that is a coin, wouldn't there be some Latin on it? It looks more like a medallion perhaps made for this sword. ??

I am wondering if these are not victorian repros. That second one looks suspiciously like the sword attributed to King Henry V. Craig ( A&A) talked about this on the phone once, about the proliferation of victorian copies beign pawned off as original medieval swords. Makes one wonder.


Joel

It could be. However there are several swords listed that are "in the style of <century>" there as well. Those swords have much lower reserves for swords that appear to be in better condition than swords of a similar era. The company appears to be a fairly decent antigues dealer and the last thing an antiques dealer wants is to sell something that has been dated wrong.

An example is the Katzbalger that has a reserve of only about 370 dollars. That would make it cheaper than most new swords of that type. Running the description through Babel Fish results in, "modern preparation of collecting tank in the style around 1530. Strengthens, reciprocally doubly gekehlte blade with quadruple gekehlter false sharpness. At the blade beginning on one side doubly struck forging mark. Cut eyeglass container, Hilze from gekehltem, dark horn with typical, heavy Knauf. Length 85.5 cm"

I am in no way trying to imply dishonesty on the part of the dealer. They may not know that the swords are copies ( if they indeed are). It just makes me wonder, especially with the find grip condtion of the second example, if these are original medieval swords. Without providence provided I would not give the asking price. I think we need Bjorn, or someone who is fluent in German to interpert for us. Perhaps the site does state that these are Victorian examples or gives dates of the make of each sword. The first sword looks more in line of the condition of most sword sof it's type and period that I haev seen. Now granted, I am far from an expert but looking my copy of Records of the Medieval, Sword in Hand and other texts, along with some actual historical examples I was able to glimpse in Scotland, sword B is in super condition. If it truely is an actual medieval sword then I think the asking price is far too low. Perhaps the seller is basing the price on what they paid to acquire it. I don 't know. Sword a looks like someone has tried to knock some rust off as parts of the blade look polished. Intriguing concept though.

Hi Joel,

There are several nearly mint swords in "Records", so conditions is not always a dead giveaway of age. The first sword was found in excavation so the condition is consistent with it being berried for some time.
It has to be mentioned that ~80% of the swords that are found come from river finds (if I remember correctly the number given by Oakeshott). This simply means that most of the swords on display today are going to have the look of the first sword or worse.
There are examples of sword that were always taken care of, so these will look remarkably preserved. And yes, some of these "cared-for" swords have had their grips changed to reflect fashion or ware and tare from use.

Alexi