I was hoping that one of you folk may have links to information and pictures of the original museum piece that this Barta sword is based on. His information on it states that the original is located in Sheffield, UK.

http://www.templ.net/pics-weapons/151-sword/151-corpus-v.jpg


I really like this piece, very curious about the original.

Look up the Abingdon sword. It seems to follow the same pattern, though I'm not sure about the decorative work Barta does. It's splendid work, I love it, but maybe it is a composite of designs he's seen here and there rather than a true copy.

The original sword is described in "Some neglected late Anglo-Saxon swords" by David Wilson:

http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS...32_054.pdf

there are some photos in a separate pdf on the same website... Barta looks to have followed the original quite closely.

Great link , Mark. Well written in depth article. Enjoyed that.

That is my sword, I am glad to see you like it.

The article Mark linked to was the only real information I could find on it, you can find the accompanying plates here. I first ran across this sword as an illustration in Hilda Ellis Davidson's The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England, and there is a full length photo in Ewert Oakeshott's Sword in Hand. I found a small photo of the hilt on the museum website, although it does not appear to still be there, regardless a direct enquiry resulted in them sending me a larger image. You can see the full image here, and a side by side comparison below.

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Side by side

Mr Bell's pictures show how true Mr Barta stays to the original design. Great piece.