First of all, I must confess that I know absolutely nothing about bilbos, but being born and living in Bilbao, Bilbo in modern Basque, I feel an “obligation” to contribute to this thread.
European Weapons and Armour. From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, by
Ewart Oakeshott, Boydell, 1980. Pages 168-9.
“Basically the Bilbo hilt is fashioned to the same pattern as the Spanish cup hilt, except that instead of the cup the guard is formed of two very large shells, curved up and back over the ricasso and covering the arms of the hilt. […]
It was probably during the eighteenth century that it acquired the name Bilbo, for quantities of swords were shipped to the Spanish Americas and the Netherlands out of the port of Bilbao. […]
It is assumed that the Bilbo hilt and the Spanish cup hilt were contemporary, but there are grounds at least for speculation that the Bilbo form may have preceded the other by almost a quarter-century. […]
If, as seems reasonable, we assume the Bilbo to be a Spanish modification of the Pappenheimer 2, it is equally reasonable to suppose that it was in use before the cup hilt”.
However, the first reference to the bilbos (with this name, I think only used in England), comes from a comedy by Shakespeare,
The Merry Wives of Windsor, first published in 1602:
"I suffered the pangs of three several deaths: first, an intolerable fright, to be detected with a jealous rotten bell-wether; next, to be compassed, like a good bilbo, in the circumference of a peck, hilt to point, heel to head."
Bilbos are also 16th century swords. W. Reid, in
The Lore of Arms, 1976, says that the ones made in the 16th c. were probably not cup-hilt like. So we may have different styles of these swords, depending on which century they were made.
Here you have information (unfortunately in Spanish) about bilbos and their production in Bilbao during the 16th c. Just in the city there were dozens of swordsmiths. Nowadays there is not a single one in the whole Basqueland. :( What a disaster!
http://gladius.revistas.csic.es/index.php/gla...File/90/91
Just for curiosity’s sake, try “bilbo sword” in Google. (Almost) all you will find is about
Sting. :eek: