Details

LOT 0943

Medieval Tournament Hand-and-a-Half Sword

(Steel, 1.1 kg, length overall: 103 cm, length of blade: 85 cm, maximum width of blade: 41 mm.).

Circa 1350-1400 AD. A hand-forged steel sword of hand-and-a-half type, with flat-section disc pommel and cross pattee quillons; to one face of the blade, an inlaid brass sigil of the globus cruciger; the blade narrow, lozenge-section and relatively flat; the quillons elliptical in section; the tang flat with traces of the grip remaining; the blade unsharpened, implying a tournament piece.

Provenance

Ex Tucker collection, Buckinghamshire, UK. Probably of German origin.

Literature

Cf. Oakeshott, E. Records of the Medieval Sword item XVII.2, a late 14th century Danish sword with very similar pommel; item XIX.2, a late 14th century sword with similar quillons; item XVIIIa.4, a late 14th century sword with lozenge-section blade profile.

Footnotes

The globus cruciger is the orb of the world (globus) topped with a cross (crux), a Christian symbol of authority used throughout the Middle Ages on coins, royal iconography and regalia. It symbolises the Christian deity's (the cross) dominion over the world (the orb), held under the protection and domination of an earthly ruler.

CONDITION