I can advance what i have learnt that, this type of basket hilt with one pair of diagonal bars, forming the so called 'single mouse stairs', is in principle from the 17th century.
The type of leather grip reminds me (?) the one i have:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ight=schiavona

thank you for the information and photos
 

Hello , nice variation ! Where did you find this piece? Very nice variation. I purchased my shiavona in Prauge from a collection of arms that was sold from Karlstejn Castlein in 1989. My grip is leather wrapped and appearsto be original. I will try to post better photos. The basket does look very much like yours :-)

In a local antique arms seller. It has previously belonged in a collection from a Lisbon arms historian.

ANOTHER NICE EXAMPLE POPPED UP ON ANOTHER POST AND I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE GOOD TO ADD SOME PICTURES OF IT HERE FOR REFERENCE. SAID TO BE 18TH CENTURY AND HAS A NICE LIONS FACE ON THE POMMEL

Speaking of lions; i have a paper written by a local guy in which he says that, (quote) although some historians describe the form of the Schiavona pommel as a cat's head, even wolf or others, more probably would be the form of a lion, more or less stylized. Mind the relation that Venice has with the Saint Marcos lion - symbol of power of that city (unquote).

Another Schiavona for consideration
 

Here are photos of another schiavona for consideration and member comments. I purchased this recently at auction because I love the look of schiavonas. This sword has some interesting characteristics. The auction description listed as 18th century in the style of 16th century. Based upon another member's comments about the mouse ladder of the guard, it appears to be after 1750. the overall length of the sword is 40 3/4 inches and the blade itself measures 34 1/2". The blade is also very interesting as it has an inscription "INTI DOMNNI" and a mark which appears to be the Passau wolf. I found a web link to an opinion about this inscription. The writer believes it means something like "my esteemed lord's gift or property". Based on an often displayed chart of the design of the wolf, it is from 16th century. If the blade is German, could this still be a Venetian schiavona or dalmation schiavona? The sword is in good condition except that the wire guard which attaches to the pommel seems to be broken. The pommel is in the cat's head design, but has a flower outline instead of a cat or lion's face as we have seen with other schiavonas. Also the grip may very well be a replacement since it is a wire wrapped style and not leather wrapped as would likely have been in original condition. So what does everyone think? Is this a composite sword with a blade from a different source, or is this an original sword with a replacement grip? Any ideas on true age based on the design? Thank you all very much for looking and providing your opinions and guidance. I am a brand new member and have just begun collecting in the last year.

Not my field of collecting, but I saw a few schiavona's in Genoa in Castel D'Albertis museum.

Best regards,
Willem

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

i've always thought they looked cool, but as noted earlier, the originals are well above my pay grade. especially in useable condition.

then their was the TV series 'The Three Musketeers', aside from their incredulous and horrendously inaccurate leather clothing/armour their rapiers were interesting. porthos' especially. he appears to carry a schiavona unlike the other two. (see attached photo)

of course, someone decided to cash in and make reasonable 'munitions' grade replicas for the reenactors market. i now have my schavona, the blade is HC steel, hardened , tempered and razor sharp. 1.5kg. it'll do as a place holder until i win the lottery. not a 'cats' head pommel, tho i did see one of the originals way above in this thread, post 46, labelled 93 (nr. 126) with a similar pommel.