[David McElrea]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone will be able to help me identify a sword that is shown at the very end of Oakeshott's "Records of the Medieval Sword". The sword can be seen on the left hand side of page 302, (next to the "King Edward III sword" in plate 22 under the heading "Photographs of the King Edward III Sword"). I've looked for the sword in question within the main body of the book, but haven't found it (Hopefully I didn't just skim past it somehow).

This is one of those that I would really love to see recreated....

Here are some pics for those who might not have the book.

Thanks,

David

[Nathan Robinson]

Hi David:

That sword is also in our Photo Albums:
:

The only thing I know about it is that it's presumed to be a Victorian reproduction. I also read, and I can't remember where at this point, that it was sold in auction, represented as real, and sits in a private collection somewhere.

Who knows more?

It, and the other sword in that photo, are pretty good looking to me.

[David McElrea]

Thanks for the info Nathan-- and for posting a much better photo

Shame it's likely Victorian-- even so, I'll tip my hat to whoever commissioned it originally

David

[Patrick Kelly]

All of the pieces in that photo were once in the possession of dealer and noted counterfeiter Louis Marcy. Since they were in Marcy's possession they were assumed to be fakes for many years. Only the the sword attributed to Edward III and the dagger on the right have been "proven" to be genuine. The sword on the right has been shown to be a forgery by the blade museum in Solingen. The whereabouts and provence of the very attractive sword on the left are unknown.

[Craig Johnson]

Patrick has the info as I am aware of it. Marcy is one of those fellows who makes life hard for the enthusiast and scholar of today. He schlocked some pretty nasty stuff, salted with some genuine pieces of high quality, good tactic on his part. The French dealers of his day where moving quite a bit of stuff and some was coming right out of the great collections back door and the rest was made by some fairly talented craftsmen who had certainly the skills to match much of the originals ornamentation. One of the areas they were weak on or did not pay attention to, more likely, was the feel of the items. Thus we have some very tricky detective work to do sorting out the particulars of any piece that has passed through these dealers hands. My guess is many of the western collections of note today have a piece or two that crossed their door steps and make the curators nervous.

The joys of modern Arms and Armor scholarship

Best
Craig