| myArmoury.com is now completely member-supported. Please contribute to our efforts with a donation. Your donations will go towards updating our site, modernizing it, and keeping it viable long-term. Last 10 Donors: Anonymous, Daniel Sullivan, Chad Arnow, Jonathan Dean, M. Oroszlany, Sam Arwas, Barry C. Hutchins, Dan Kary, Oskar Gessler, Dave Tonge (View All Donors) |
Author |
Message |
Nathan Robinson
myArmoury Admin
|
|
|
|
Steve Maly
|
Posted: Sun 13 Feb, 2005 9:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
Here is an example of an entire hilt of crystal. It is up for auction in April at Hermann Historica in Germany.
Attachment: 13.88 KB
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." ~A. Maslow
|
|
|
|
Carl Croushore
Industry Professional
|
Posted: Sun 13 Feb, 2005 11:54 am Post subject: |
|
|
Mac, how do you like your book "European Swords & Daggers in the Tower of London"? I've had that volume for about 15 years, and I love many of the swords pictured therein. The photos are quite nice quality, too.
A query for those who may know:
How was a stone pommel attached to the tang? Were the metal "buttons" threaded on, or were they perhaps drilled and rivetted? Rivetting the tip to the tang would seem to have the least potential to harm the crystal, as a threaded piece could be over-tightened and cause stress fractures to the quartz.
If it were a tougher stone, such as a corundum (ruby or sapphire), the pommel could even take the heat of hot-peening an endpiece to the tang. I know of no historical evidence of pommels created from those minerals, however. Jade would also be a nice, tough stone from which to form a pommel, as many cultures used it to form entire weapons. Admittedly, many of those jade weapons were ceremonial.
Any commentary on the production of swords with these pommel types would be welcomed!
Cheers!
-- Carl Croushore
|
|
|
|
Thomas McDonald
myArmoury Alumni
|
Posted: Mon 14 Feb, 2005 7:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
Carl Croushore wrote: | Mac, how do you like your book "European Swords & Daggers in the Tower of London"? I've had that volume for about 15 years, and I love many of the swords pictured therein. The photos are quite nice quality, too. |
Hi Carl
I like it .... the photos (mostly all b&w) are of excellent quality !
I wished they'd included more detailed stats, and maybe some different angle shots of the pieces, but all in all a nice volume !
( a few more baskethilts would also help to pad this one out ;-)
* When I was at the Vegas show I flipped thru an old Peter Finer catalog that had this jasper wheel-pommeled sword for sale in it,
as well as another rock crystal pommeled sword ( either a two hander or a hand & half as I recall ) !
I wish I had noted the catalogue date as I'd be curious to know which auction house offered it first, or bought it from whom ?
Mac
'Gott Bewahr Die Oprechte Schotten'
XX ANDRIA XX FARARA XX
Mac's PictureTrail
|
|
|
|
Thomas McDonald
myArmoury Alumni
|
Posted: Tue 15 Feb, 2005 8:11 am Post subject: |
|
|
Photo & text: The Eleventh Park Lane Arms Fair, copyright D.A. Oliver, 1994.
Article entitled: "The Grip of the Medieval Sword and a Battle near Tagliacozzo", by Ewart Oakeshott
The third sword, which belonged to San Fernando, King of Castille, who died in 1252, is preserved as a Relic in the treasury of Seville Cathedral. It is handsome, though seemingly very un-practical, for its hilt is made entirely of semi-precious stone, with silver decorative mounts.(Plate 3). The pommel is of rock crystal with an elegant fillet of silver binding its circumference. Pommels of stone like this - crustal, jasper and so on - were not unusual in the Middle Ages; but grips, and perticularly crosses, of stone seem to have been rare. Here both grip and cross are made of Carnelian. The grip has fillets of silver top and bottom, and the straight cross of octagonal section has a decorative little sleeve on each arm, with a mounting of silver decorated with Hispano-Moresque "Mudejar" ornament forming the ecusson. As it is now, mounted upright in a silver base which holds the point-end of the blade, the hilt looks very delicate, far too flimsy to be of practical use; but after a lapse of seven centuries, its appearance may be deceptive. It is undeniably very handsome.
Mac
'Gott Bewahr Die Oprechte Schotten'
XX ANDRIA XX FARARA XX
Mac's PictureTrail
|
|
|
|
Thomas Laible
|
Posted: Thu 17 Feb, 2005 7:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
This sword is rather popular .
It was presented to Duke Friedrich of Saxony in 1425 by Emperor Sigismund.
The silverplates on the crystalpommel show the coat of arms of Bohemia and Hungary. The blade shows the Passau wolf mark, but fit and finish are considered to be of hungarian origin.
Unfortunately you cannot recognise from the image if the pommel is only "caged" or also drilled for the tang.
regards,
Thomas
Attachment: 117.5 KB
|
|
|
|
Thomas McDonald
myArmoury Alumni
|
Posted: Tue 13 Sep, 2005 6:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I've had requests to repost these images, as my old hosting site went kaput ..... Mac
'Gott Bewahr Die Oprechte Schotten'
XX ANDRIA XX FARARA XX
Mac's PictureTrail
|
|
|
|
Chad Arnow
myArmoury Team
|
Posted: Sat 21 Feb, 2009 2:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Here's some more "thread necromancy" (I like that term ).
Here is another pic of the Sotheby's sword with red hard stone pommel. It was later sold by Peter Finer. It's in his 2003 catalogue.
I might disagree with the notion of it being entirely ceremonial. The edge bears nicks and other signs of use according to the cataloguer. Since Peter Finer uses experts as his cataloguers (Oakeshott, Edge, Capwell, Peirce, etc.), I trust the verbiage.
Also below is a pic from the same Peter Finer catalogue of different sword with crystal pommel.
Attachment: 34.58 KB
Attachment: 13.78 KB
Attachment: 42.5 KB
Attachment: 30.28 KB
Attachment: 10.02 KB
Attachment: 60.01 KB
ChadA
http://chadarnow.com/
|
|
|
|
Bill Grandy
myArmoury Team
|
Posted: Sat 21 Feb, 2009 3:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks for those pics, Chad. There are some nice close ups.
And thanks for "reanimating the dead" on this thread. I'd forgotten about it, and there are some great pieces in here!
HistoricalHandcrafts.com
-Inspired by History, Crafted by Hand
"For practice is better than artfulness. Your exercise can do well without artfulness, but artfulness is not much good without the exercise.” -anonymous 15th century fencing master, MS 3227a
|
|
|
|
Tim Lison
|
Posted: Sat 21 Feb, 2009 3:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Great stuff. Love that pommel on the type XII Chad. Why are there rivet holes in the tang though? Would this sword have had some kind of slab construction for the grip? Seems a bit early for that doesn't it?
|
|
|
|
Chad Arnow
myArmoury Team
|
Posted: Sat 21 Feb, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Tim Lison wrote: | Great stuff. Love that pommel on the type XII Chad. Why are there rivet holes in the tang though? Would this sword have had some kind of slab construction for the grip? Seems a bit early for that doesn't it? |
I'm guessing it's for grip scales. The sword is dated to circa 1300. There is a dagger dated to circa 1280 with holes in the tang, presumably for scales (I'm actually having that dagger reproduced as we speak, though with rivets through a solid grip rather than scales). So the technique was likely known.
It could also be for securing some kind of decoration to the grip. The sword of Sancho IV of Castile has holes in the grip to secure the armorial discs, but I have no idea if the holes go all the way through the tang.
ChadA
http://chadarnow.com/
|
|
|
|
Mart Shearer
|
Posted: Tue 05 Jan, 2016 9:59 am Post subject: |
|
|
BUMP
Gregory Liebau linked this thread on a discussion over at Armour Archive concerning the 1357 Inventory of the Count of Hainaut, Holland, and Zeeland. With a little translation help from Robert MacPherson -
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewto...p;t=180240
Item, une petite espée à haldure d'argent s'a j pumiaul de rouge pière.
Item, a small sword with cross(?) of silver and pommel of red stone.
Similar dating though the attribution is Spanish....
ferrum ferro acuitur et homo exacuit faciem amici sui
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
|
All contents © Copyright 2003-2024 myArmoury.com All rights reserved
Discussion forums powered by phpBB © The phpBB Group
Switch to the Basic Low-bandwidth Version of the forum
|