[Shane Allee]

Just wanted to share a picture or two of the newest addition to my collection. My camera battery was low so the pics didn't turn out too well.
Free time and the sun haven't been coinciding much lately, so not much chance to get any more. Although this shipped directly from Paul, it was picked up through another individual in the US. This particular anthro is based on a now lost example from Lincolnshire where we only have a line drawing remaining. The line drawings are somewhat questionable, some of the shaping and designs are a bit modernized and the grip is a bit out of proportion. I'll try to scan this in a day or two and get it posted. If the scale to the line drawing is correct and the line drawing was to scale with the original, it would have been about 16.5" total. This one is right at 12" overall, which might be a bit more plausible to me at least. Not that there wasn't examples that long, but more in regard to the proportions of the drawing. While we do have a variety of stylized examples, the drawing is the only example of an anthro with the imp or little man as the head.

It is a bit hard to tell in some regards, but this is a project blade for me. The blade is pretty rough and the casting still needs a good bit of clean up work. The hilt clean-up shouldn't be all that bad, but it could take a good bit of time adding the more fine details back to it. After this, if it cleans up well enough there is a good chance the blade will head to the grinder and stones to clean it up and crisp up the central ridge. It is rough right now, but with a bit of work it can be cleaned up. Really not bad at all for the $140 including shipping payed. There is no way I could have the blade made and hilt cast for that. So I'm pretty happy with it.

Do notice the rust on the tip though, this was from a good idea that didn't work so well. Paul had the tip stuck in a piece of antler to keep it from poking through the packing. My guess is that it either held moisture in or sucked up the oil on the blade and allowed it to rust on its way over here. Always a good idea to put something on the tips when shipping a pointy, but maybe something else would be a better choice.

Shane

[Patrick Kelly]

Very cool!

Any chance this will be for sale once it's cleaned up, or is this strictly a personal acquisition?

[C.L. Miller]

Very cool indeed! Any chance of getting a link to the original drawing? I'd love to see it or find out a bit more info... Sounds like you got a great deal here, even with the minor spotting and required clean-up. Please post some more pics when you've made a bit of progress on it!

[Chuck Russell]

wow nice

[Bob Burns]

Dayum, bunch o people stole my words. But I am gonna say them anyway. WOW! COOL!

LOL Talk about unique looking, I'd be proud to show that pic too!


VERY NICE!

Bob

[Folkert van Wijk]

I don't know how to over do the privious reply's

I quess something like AWESOME!! would do.

I also have these drawings somewhere in a book.
And like them to.
So if it whill be up for sale or in production somewhere, please do tell me...

[Folkert van Wijk]

Here it is,
From the book: "CELTIC ART, in pagan and christian times.
Written by: J. Romilly Allen
Poblished by: Bracken Books - London
ISBN 1 85891 075 7

And the pictures.drawings offcourse...

Unfortunetly there isn't written much about it in this book...
The only text there is, is what you see on the scan...

Cheers

[Folkert van Wijk]

[Shane Allee]

Thanks guys,

I will most likely be keeping this one for myself after it is cleaned up. Julie was instantly drawn to the sketch when she found it and we were both taken by the imagery of it. I will type out the text I have for this one either late tonight or in the morning, there is a bit there on it.

Just recently I found an art caster who can cast in bronze, iron, and steel. Most art casting places don't do steel. So just in the last couple weeks it has really started to become a possibility for me to do the anthros and the northern British swords, so right now I'm trying to figure out what I would like to try. There are a few things that will come first, and I have to test out the caster to see if the quality is what it needs to be before I send a major wax fitting to them. Not sure at all at this point which ones I want to do though. I would like to have at least one iron hilt one forge, probably one or two of the pseudo anthros, and probably one or two regular styled anthros. Somewhat a toss up right now if I will want to have waxes made for any of them and do a very small run of 3 or 4, or if I will just stick to doing one off waxes.

Probably the earliest I could get to any of these would be early this next year. Major headaches with mounting a katana has set me back more than I care to even think about really. Ditched it for now and started on a chinese saber in contemporary mounts, then comes the romano british spatha, then I'm not sure.

Shane

[Russ Ellis]

[Shane Allee]

Ok, there is what I have on the dagger from An Iron Anthropoid Sword from Shouldham, Norforlk, with Related Continental and British Weapons. Clarke, R Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 21, 1955. They just refer to it as the Witham, it was found in the river Witham at Lincolnshire. Considering how many swords have come from the Witham, it doesn't hear to be a bit more specific.

"The Witham dagger is now lost, but the fine illustration of 1863 tells us much about it. The British craftsman has freed the arms and legs from the vestigial U, and given them a clean Y form, ending them in discs pegged for knobs rendered in enamel; he has moulded the grip in a stylish double baluster; and he has set the head on an imp-like little human body, with lively hands and cocked right leg, squatting on the union of the arms. This is the final flourish in the whole story of the ‘human ‘hilt: the ‘humanity’ has escaped from the typological prison of the grip and limbs, and squats free upon it. Yet the artist who did this was still working in terms of a Piggott group II weapon, and not a late one either. His chape still has its pristine heart form, set off by lip-mouldings at the sides, but not yet with those on the tip which the long Group II scabbards from Hunsbury and Lakenheath already just have, and which were taken up, at the same time in the 1st century B.C. as a special feature of the scabbards of Group III. The enamel knobs and studs on the Witham hilt and sheath were like those on the Group II scabbard from Amerden, again with unlipped chape-tip; and lastly, the sheath’s engraved asymmetry ornament of arcs and circles is in style just like that on this and the very similar Meare scabbard, and not far from hat on the Hunsbury one, which has its chape-tip only faintly lipped. Such balanced by asymmetric ornament is that of the stylistically earliest of the British mirrors, that at Liverpool in the Mayer Collection, and belongs with it to the 1st century B.C., prior to the symmetrical ornament of the Colchester mirror buried in the early 1st century A.D. And already before c. 50 B.C. (though it may run later sometimes) it has been developed into the ornament of the Bugthorpe scabbard of Group III, on which the enamel-studding is more advanced technically than in the Amerden and Witham cases. In other words, the Witham date is well back in the 1st century B.C. Its foreign Class G model then can be taken to have arrived here c. 100-75 B.C. and no later, succeeding to the Class F model shown us at North Grimston, which should be just earlier, rather than before 100."

Sadly much of this might not be of much use since it is out of context and most probably aren't familiar with the typology mention or the specific finds referenced. The booklet is pretty good for those who are interested in anthros though.

Glad to hear those look like fun from a scabbard maker Russ, I personally don't want to have anything to do with the earlier British scabbards with the cast chapes. The iron continental one intimidate me enough, although I'll probably give the core of them a go when I can get Nate up to my place. Not sure about the whole iron embossing thing on that thickness of metal, guess the british ones might have something going for them at least with the bronze.



Shane

[Russ Ellis]

Thanks for the great post Shane. I can't do any casting myself at the moment... but I know this guy...

[Steve Grisetti]

That is a neat looking piece, Shane. It strikes me, though, that the grip looks kinda small compared to your hand. Do you have large hands?

[Nathan Bell]

[Shane Allee]

Hey Steve,

I probably have somewhat larger hands than normal, but there are a bit odd shaped. Wide palm, shorter fingers type of thing. It isn't too bad griping it with an ice pick type grip though. As Nate said, these were not everyday or even battlefield weapons. Personally I lean a bit towards the idea of these being ceremonial execution blades because of how and when we see the use of the anthropoid forms, particularly the head/face. Tomorrow someone might find more solid evidence about the use of them, or we might not ever know for sure.

Shane

[Shane Allee]

Just some thoughts on the early British scabbard making....

I think that the way I would go about this is to have a mold made after the general look of whatever Piggott type you were doing. Even if you are just planning to do the one scabbard, because the upper part of the chape is in thickness of sheetmetal. I don't see that casting the most effective, so rather than having to carve three or so in hopes of getting one to turn out. Plus with the basic mold of the type, you can always go back in and modify the wax after you poured it to make a more custom look. When added to a scabbard with different incised and embossed decoration, there would be no way to know that the same basic wax form was used for two different scabbards.

Shane

[Folkert van Wijk]

[Shane Allee]

Most of what I'll be doing will be with needle files. Rotary tools like a Dremel or Foredom can be very good to use with the pencil type of extension and a careful steady hand. After the initial file work, Mark just used his dremel to clean up the giant Nintendo sculpture over at Rick's. It came back from the caster looking pretty bad too. The small burs and flexible paper like sanding disk seemed to be what he used most of the time. I'm slowly working to get better with my dremel, but I'm still pretty shaky with it. Most of what I do will probably just be with needle files, then more texturing areas with the dremel. After the needle files though you can always put a bit of fine sand paper around the end of the file to help get the right finish that you want in those hard to reach areas.

Shane

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

Hi Shane,

That's a very nice dagger! I'm planning on making my own anthropomorphic (say that three times fast!) sword. There's one thing I can't figure out though. Where these hilts cast onto the blade, or where they cast seperately and somehow attached afterwards? I can't see any trace of rivets or of the tang protruding from the back on the originals.

[Nathan Bell]