My dad had ammased a large library in life and I found this tattered paperback a few months ago. I hadn't really had a chance to thumb through it until a couple of weeks ago. Some leathercraft by Eric Blacksmith brought it to mind and I later did some googling.

I don't know much about Speltz except that this book was first published in German, early 1900s and covers design and decoration over thousands of years. There are 400 b&w plates with decriptions of the drawings and a great deal of text besides.

In the course of the google exploration, I came across a University of Wisconsin website that has the entire volume online.
They even format the pages for printing and waive copyright in fair use. Ie; linking to the material and educational use.

There is a fair bit of weaponry represented across the ages, along with the architectural and other ornament. From prehistoric to the end of the 19th century, it's all there.

The plates viewed online are a lot easier to see than in the little paperback. There are lots of older and larger editions out there for those that would want a hard copy reference.

Anyway, fwiw

The Styles Of Ornament Online

It's really worth a look but time consuming if you are just after the swords (there are more than a few).

Cheers, enjoy

GC

Oh yeah, vist the index of other references this site has to offer. Quite an incredible collection of stuff.

I'm still going through this, but man, this is fantastic.

It is quite an eyeful. The plates will enlarge with little degredation. It is a source for artisans of all genre.

The text has been called to task as somewhat inaccurate, so some of the specific identification of artifacts may be suspect. We have to remember that this work was compiled and drawn by an architect at the turn of the 19th/20th century. We have learned a lot more about some of these items since then.

I imagine that many of these plates could be utilized for etchings, carvings, avatars; what have you.

Enjoy and don't forget to check the rest of the site. countless hours of eyestrain there :lol:

Cheers

Glen