[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by Philip

Hi, Colin

To answer your questions, I pored through two references covering the subject:
1. Ewart Oakeshott, European Weapons and Armour from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, chap. 2, Staff-Weapons
2. Mario Troso, Le Armi in Asta delle Infanterie Europee 1000-1500 [Polearms of European Infantry...]

that comprehensively span the time frame during which these weapons evolved in a milieu of active use.

I was struck by the absence of this particular blade shape in the wide spectrum of piercing and cutting weapons mounted on shafts, at least in Europe. The closest thing is a weapon called a glaive, which is essentially resembles a chef's knife on steroids -- straight back and convex edge, sometimes back-edged at the tip. This, and related cutting weapons, also exceed the 18 inch blade length of the piece under consideration. Oh, another thing -- the swordlike fullering on its blade is not something seen on the polearms in these and other reference books/catalogs.

To address your question #2, yes, that seems to generally be the case. However, in the numerous photo-illustrated examples in the Troso book, there are a couple in which the langets appear separate. One, a 1640s partizane (p 110, no. 4) which looks to be a parade or regalia version, has langets but clearly made separately (functionality not such an issue on a ceremonial object?). The other, a bat-wing corsesca (chauve-souris)p 126, no. 7, has a visible separation that might just as well be old damage or repair.

Could well be that this piece is a Victorian-era composite, assembled to look like a medieval or Renaissance weapon.

Hello Philip,

Good information... many thanks for taking the trouble to do this research. I was only working on memory from my visits to the Wallace Collection here in London, and have no reference books on European Arms available to me currently.