Wanted: Joan of Arc Sword -- myArmoury.com

Gary Bunn · Posted: Fri 15 Jan, 2010 9:53 am Post subject: Wanted: Joan of Arc Sword

Looking for full size Joan of Arc sword. Please let me know if you know where to purchase or have one for sale.

Cheers!

TGB

JG Elmslie · Industry Professional

William Goodwin · Posted: Fri 15 Jan, 2010 10:13 am Post subject:

PM sent

Craig Peters · Posted: Fri 15 Jan, 2010 10:43 am Post subject:

Yes, as JG says, this is way too vague- there have to be many "Joan of Arc" swords out there. I'm going to assume for a moment that you're looking for a historical sword, rather than something that just has Joan's name attached to it. If so, there's only one contemporary illustration of Joan, and it's a marginal manuscript doodle. It also just so happens that she's depicted holding a sword:

Obviously, we cannot be certain if the sword illustrated is "her" sword, or just a long sword that the clerk felt would be appropriate for the image. Even so, it's by far the best we've got. That being the case, in my mind, the best reproduction sword available to fulfill this role is Albion Armorer's Next Generation Agincourt: http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/albion/ne...rt-xv.htm. If you wanted to customize it to make it a bit more like the sword in the drawing, you could request a peen block from Albion, and perhaps consider switching the guard with the one seen on the Ringeck or Fiore, although personally, I think the Agincourt one works just fine.

Craig

Roger Hooper · Posted: Fri 15 Jan, 2010 10:44 am Post subject:

Here is a 15th century depiction of Joan of Arc. I'm not saying that the sword is a painting of the actual one she used, but it could have been something very similar.

JG Elmslie · Industry Professional

and here's the one from the Musée de Dijon attributed to her.

interesting peice, with an unusual hilt for the blade typography.

Tom King · Posted: Fri 15 Jan, 2010 11:55 am Post subject:

St.George!!! St.George!!! St.George!!!

John Lundemo · Industry Professional

Joan of Arc's sword was called the "Sword of St. Catherin" and had five crosses on the blade, according to Catholic lore. She had found it in a room behind the alter of a church.

James Arlen Gillaspie · Industry Professional

The sword she started with was found under the floor behind the altar of the church of Sainte Catherine de Fierbois. She did not retrieve it herself; when offered a sword, she said where the one she would use would be found, and an armorer (think weapons, not armour; back in the day, someone who did what I do was called a 'platemaker', not an 'armourer') was sent from Tours to see if it was where she said it was. It had been buried for a long time.

After the siege of Paris, the Fierbois sword disappeared. She would never say what happened to it. From that point on she used a sword she had captured from a Burgundian.

P.S. Roger, I have it on good authority (Olivier Bouzy, who was director of the Jeanne d'Arc Center in Orleans) that the picture you posted is a 19th century fake. I was relieved when he told me that; the armour made no sense to me.