| J. Hargis wrote: |
| I have a different viewpoint. I find the scabbard to be overwrought. A more elegant, simplified approach would best serve the detail in the sword grip.
Cheers, Jon |
I do agree that a simpler scabbard (at least for the 11th through 13th c.) can look quite nice.
If we are looking at a strict historical interpretation we need to consider the question of leather tooling. To what extent was it employed- how could paint have been employed in scabbard decoration- how was metal used in decoration- even looking at materials like cloth and parchment might be interesting issues.
It can be difficult to determine just what we are looking at in period artwork giving it's nature. Since we have been left with so few surviving examples some guesswork is going to come into the picture. .
I do believe that we may see an over-application of tooling (not seeking to subtract from the obvious beauty) here.
We need to look at the direction or thrust of each project. For my projects, for instance, I tend to be as slavishly committed to historical precedent as possible. But even with that- in the 11th- through 13th. C. we still are going to see some conjecture in finished pieces.
But this is a lovely scabbard in it's own right- though painstaking historical accuracy may not be the overriding goal, we are left with a stunning piece of work with a fair degree of historical precedent.