The celebs with swords thread gave me an idea.

How about this for a new topic? People and swords. And portraits of them. I am thinking kings, soldiers, the occasional band of mercenaries... you name it. Via camera or paintbrush. Either way is cool. Self portraits are highly recommended!

I will start...

This portrait is taken from sabels.net. I translated the information that came with it.

It is an old group photo from ca. 1923 of the dutch marechaussee. Taken in Nieuwstadpoort in Zutphen. No less than four different types of sabre can be seen carried by the men: a cavalry sabre M1895 on the bottom left, a cavalry sabre M1876 next to that, a marechaussee klewang next to that and the middle man on the bottom row has a walking(?)sabre KL 1912.

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Ps I am not suggesting that celebrities are not people.

Good old wikipedia ;)

"Maurice of Nassau (Dutch: Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was sovereign Prince of Orange from 1618, on the death of his eldest half brother, Philip William, Prince of Orange, (1554–1618). He was stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (except in the province of Friesland) from earliest 1585 until his death in 1625.

Maurice organised the Dutch rebellion against Spain into a coherent, successful revolt and won fame as a military strategist. He set out to revive and revise the classical doctrines of Vegetius and pioneered the new European forms of armament and drill."


Here he is painted by:


"Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Mierveld or Mireveldt (1566 – 27 June 1641) was a Dutch Golden Age painter.

Van Mierevelt was born and died in Delft, as a son of a goldsmith, who apprenticed him to the copperplate engraver Hieronymus Wierix. Though Mierevelt is chiefly known as a portrait painter, he also executed some mythological pieces of minor importance. Many of his portraits have been reproduced in line by the leading Dutch engravers of his time."

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An exhaustive list of photographed individuals with swords would be a lot of work but here are a few of interesting military men and women. I have several dozen photos in files.

Cheers

GC

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Heros von Borcke; rode with the confederates in the American Civil War

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Franz Sigel: Federal officer figured in several notable ACW battles

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George Patton; as a Lt Col with his trademark sword

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Charles Norton; ACW with a non regulation militia sword

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Rhode Island Patriot, Kady Southwell Brownell. Woman fighting in the ACW

Henry Savill Marsham pictured as a lieutenant with the 60th Kings Royal Rifle Corps (c.1870) , and his sword as it appears today.

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Richard Burton (the 19th century adventurer, not the actor)

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Here's a cover from a book featuring Gustavus von Tempsky, a East Prussian who ended his days fighting against Maori during the Taranaki wars, he was said to have went to the aid of a fallen comrade and took a musket shot in the forehead.

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Nice stuff guys. I especially like the photographs of people who may or may not have had to use their swords in earnest. There is just something about them that seems to bridge the gap between the now and the yesterday of swords and their use like nothing else could. It brings it closer to home I guess...

Let's keep them coming!

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This man deserves a spot. Ewart Oakeshott.

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No further background information as of yet.
But the picture itself is so magnificent, I just couldn't resist. The X factor on these guys is through the roof.

Johannes Liechtenauer, presumably, holding a fechtschwert in Von Danzig's treatise of 1452.

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Great thread idea, here are a couple of early sixteenth century portraits with great looking swords in them.

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CAVAZZOLA
Warrior with Equerry
1518-22
Oil on wood, 90 x 73 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

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CARPACCIO, Vittore
Portrait of a Knight
1510
Tempera on canvas, 218 x 152 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Here are a couple of Albrecht Durer drawings

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Knight, Death, and the Devil

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The Battle of the Angels

Now it's my turn...
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) in 1868, when he voluntarily served as an artilleryman in the Naumburg Field Artillery Regiment for 1 year.
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Willem van Heythuszen, by Franz Hals, 1625

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I have shown it in another thread earlier, but Danish/Norwegian King Christian the Fourth on horse with his battle-sword drawn.

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Found an old photograph of Danish soldiers from the 3rd infantry regiment on Als in the Slesvig-Holsten war of 1864.
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Picture: http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/interview/18...e-baghoved
Love those pipes and several soldiers have their swords casually in or by hand.