Good evening, everyone.

I have been getting in basket-hilted swords lately, and I have been wondering something over the last few days.

How long would an older style of basket-hilt be worn? To define "older style" in this case, I mean something along the lines of this one owned by Alex McCracken or Nathan's lowland hilt, or even this this ribbon one. For some reason, I tend to favor this type of basket-hilt over the more "typical" kind.

So, how out of place would it have been to see a man carrying a sword of this type in, say, the first quarter of the 18th century?

Thanks for the help!

Well, I'll share what little I know about these, though I know better answers will follow. The first one you asked about, Alex's, is commonly referred to as an SW11 design. This, if I recall correctly was around at the tail end of the 16th cent. The other lowland one, provided by nathan, predates the SW11. 1560-1570 or so, I want to say. There is another similar one refered to as the Chelmsford (sp?) River sword and its date has been put at around 1540. The ribbon hilts Im not as up to scratch with but i think (really shaky on this one) they normally date around 1660-70? Again, these are my recolections as I dont have any of my books or papers infront of me. Should just wait for one of the big dogs to grab this :) I also favor more of the 'bar' baskets over the 'plate' ones, though I'd love to get as many as I could get my wallet to swallow. The early s-hilt being one of my faves.

It's very instructive to see how many of the weapons illustrated in Culloden: The Swords and the Sorrows have baskets that post-date their blades. Some of those combinations may reflect re-hilting with the change of fashion. I wonder if the move from wide open bars to close-set plates is in any way related to the rise of the bayonet and other thrusting weapons (rapier, smallsword). Anyway, I doubt a particular hilt style would survive to become fashionable if it couldn't prove itself on the field.

From Claude Blair's paper, "The Early Basket-Hilt in Britian", as reproduced in Dr. David Caldwell's book !

Mac

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Flat, close-set bars! That answers that question. Thanks, Mac!