Type V / fishtail pommels in period art -- myArmoury.com

Mark T

Hi all,

I'm pretty sure we don't have a thread here devoted to Type V / 'fishtail' pommels in period art.

We do have a few images scattered on various threads, especially the Wallace Collection A466 type XVIII thread, but I thought it would be good to rescue them from there and have them all in one place.

Hans Memling, The Virgin and Child with Angel Saint Georges and Donor,1470-1480:

The Resurrection of Christ, Hans Pleydenwurff (c. 1465-1470):

Detail from The Crucifixion, Hans Pleydenwurff (c. 1465-1470):

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, by Michael Pacher, c.1465-1470:

And one that I don't think has been posted here before, which I was pretty happy to find - Richard III from the Rous Roll, Add. MS 48976, British Library:

Roger Hooper · Posted: Sat 22 Mar, 2014 9:37 am Post subject:

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, from the Rous Roll

Mark T · Posted: Wed 04 Jun, 2014 9:29 pm Post subject:

Here's another: 'Madonna e santi' by Francesco e Bernadino Zaganelli da Cotignola, 1499.

This is the largest image I could find online; Boccia & Coelho's Armi Bianche Italiane has this in high detail as image 169.

Nat Lamb · Posted: Thu 05 Jun, 2014 6:49 pm Post subject:

The st Catherine sword looks like the pommel might not be a fishtail. Looks (to my eye at least) like a historic sword I saw reviewed (I can't remember if it was at myArmoury or thearma site sorry) that had a a sort of notch or grove so that the off hand could comfortably hold the pommel in a "pistol grip" making the hilt have a greater effective length that grip alone would indicate.
Obviously this is just a random idea, and I recognise that painting is not a photograph.

Mark T · Posted: Fri 13 Jun, 2014 5:20 pm Post subject:

Amazing what you can miss when it's under your nose ... the sword in the image of St George from Dürer's Paumgartner Altarpiece looks like a contender to be part of the V-type family. Instead of the 'fins' meeting at a V-shaped point, this one appears to have a shallow U-shape - but it still appears to be part of the broader family, of which there are a lot of variants.

Nat Lamb · Posted: Wed 25 Jun, 2014 3:07 am Post subject:

Link to an "art of swords" picture of the unusual type of pommel the St Catherine painting reminded me of.
http://art-of-swords.tumblr.com/post/89647482...00-culture