Hi from Bavaria,

aside from the Oktoberfest, Munich has some more and quite fascinating attractions, among these the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. I had some hours to spare on Sunday (on Sundays the admission charge is 1 Euro…) and used the time to take some pictures, and I´d like to share those with you. Although they are far from perfect if you want high quality shots, I noticed some facts that I was not aware of before.
The famous Bavarian longsword really looks “as if it had been made yesterday” (quoting Oakeshot´s “Records…”. The guard and grip of the crystal pommel sword are so very gothic looking that they seem to define the style. The third sword is huge, the blade easily 10 cm longer than that of the “Bavarian” sword. And by the way, the blade of the bavarian sword has got a hexagonal cross section close to the grip, running down about half the length of the grip. Otherwise a typical Oakeshot Type VIII, I find this detail quite interesting.
The historical weapons room is only one of many, the others are filled with medieval and renaissance paintings, sculptures an other works of art.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Best wishes,

Mark

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Some more pictures, paintings mostly...

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Great pictures. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Markus! You just sold me a city trip to Munich!
That quiver is very striking. I'd like to see a repro of that very much.
Tod, that's right down your alley. Want to give that a go? :)

My thoughts exactly julien. And that crystal pommel...wouldn't like the be the person peening that one! Now wheres that lump of rose quartz i have and Tod's number.....


Thanks for the pics, brilliant stuff.

Wow, a sturmhaube with its velvet cover intact! Thank you, Markus; I had no idea this helmet existed.

-Hildebrandt

I'd probably stand there and stare at that display of swords for an hour. at least an hour. and for 1 euro, now i just need a plane ticket.

got to admit, just when you think you've seen just about everything piratical with sword construction, something from the period seems to be brought to your attention and you just think, wow, smiths really did jewel their swords.

peening down the crystal pummel, probably difficult - i wanna know how did the smith (or jeweler) drill through the thing?!?! let me just go get my diamond carbide bit out of my tool chest aannnnnd hey! i found a back order note saying it won't be available until the 20th century crap now what?

actually it comes to me now, it may have been formed around the tang while molten like glass ware crystal?. blacksmith walks into a glass blowing plant with a sword, comes out with something marvelous.

Very helpful pictures, thanks. Any chance you might go again sometime. I would LOVE to see a picture of both sides of the pommel of the Bayeriches longsword (the one with the tooled leather grip). So far the one side has continued to elude me.

Thanks for the kind replies.

Another visit to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum is quite possible, although I hope to take a trip to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuernberg next, their arms and art collection is quite impressive, too, maybe even more impressive.

So, Julien, if you really plan to go to Munich sometime, I would recomend to visit some other places which are not to far off, Nuernberg for example, or the Bayerisches Armeemuseum in Ingolstadt, or Rothenburg with the famous Reichstadtmuseum (that is a collection they have got there, I can tell you, stunning, really)

Hello Russ, unfortunately the Bavarian longsword is mounted at the back of the display case against the wall, and even the sides of that case are closed (the windows and people you can see on those pictures are reflection on the glass front), so a picture of the other side of the pommel is impossible, sorry for that.

Best wishes,

Mark

Russ, check the .jpg links here http://www.companie-of-st-george.ch/ml-livhist/msg02251.html Is this the sword you're referring to? I tried to post the pictures but they're too big. This might be a replica but I'm not sure.

Edited to add direct links:
http://folini.tikon.ch/images/linked/frank-knauf1.jpg
http://folini.tikon.ch/images/linked/frank-knauf2.jpg
http://folini.tikon.ch/images/linked/frank-knauf3.jpg

Thank you for these very good photos, Markus!

You don't happen to have some detailed pictures from your visit of the Bayr.Nationalmuseum showing a good view of hourglass gauntlets or early halve mitten gauntlets in early 15th century effigies or paintings?

I am still looking for some input in my gauntlet thread here http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=28906

:D

Markus, thank you very much for sharing!

Sorry for slight thread necro, but to answer Russ and Julien's questions - and to give some cross-referencing that makes this site valuable, two quick things:

Russ: The previous pommel looks like it was a reproduction by Frank Wittstadt. The following image of the original was posted by Sean here in his Bayerisches XVIIIb Details thread:

[ Linked Image ]

Julien M wrote:

That quiver is very striking. I'd like to see a repro of that very much.

Julien - Stefan Hanson posted his version of this quiver in his A crossbow quiver reconstruction thread - amazing work!:

[ Linked Image ]