Polish Hussar Lance/Spear examples?

[BUCC_Guy]

I am trying to find more information on the lance in the attached photo. It was reportedly acquired via de-accession from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1972 and it is pictured in George Cameron Stone’s “A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor“ on page 500. (I misplaced my book and ordered a new copy.). It was reportedly from Stone’s collection.


Does anyone have any information, particularly photos of other examples, that even remotely resemble this type? I have never seen the side-mounted blades before.

It will likely be several weeks before the lance is in my possession.

More info from a prior retail sale:

Prior sale

[Jim McDougall]

Well, I got to my 'Stone' finally and had been barking up the wrong tree entirely as Stone (p.500) shows this among 'pikes', which have nothing to do with lances or Polish hussars. These are of course infantry weapons, but do have basic similarities to many lances of course in that it is a pointed spear head attached to a haft or pole, usually using the langets extending down to attach with screws.

I have not seen those side 'wings' nor the curious hooks on the shaft on anything, and I have gone through every weapons and arms & armor reference I can think of. While lances were indeed used in Eastern Europe long after they had fallen out of use in the west, the Polish hussar lances were hollowed fir halves glued together a ball type vamplate mid shaft, looking mostly like medieval tilting lances.

There is the possibility this is a boar hunting spear, which often have 'wings' to prevent the prey from coming up the shaft, though these elongated side 'blades' seem contrary to the extended wings typically seen.

Whatever it is, it is certainly 'one of a kind' and having something of Stone's, one of the pillars of arms & armor scholarship, is outstanding!!!

[BUCC_Guy]

Thanks for looking into it!

The Kopia is the hollowed lance with the ball, and I’m not convinced this is the remains of one. From what brief reading I’ve done, there were likely shorter, solid spears used in second wave attacks (infantry). Kopia were also single-use items, and this appears to have too much effort out into it to be disposable.

The hooks are too far down to be for overpenetration.

I should get some better info when it arrives.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by BUCC_Guy

Thanks for looking into it!

The Kopia is the hollowed lance with the ball, and I’m not convinced this is the remains of one. From what brief reading I’ve done, there were likely shorter, solid spears used in second wave attacks (infantry). Kopia were also single-use items, and this appears to have too much effort out into it to be disposable.

The hooks are too far down to be for overpenetration.

I should get some better info when it arrives.

I wasnt aware of the name of the Polish hussar lance. I did not mean your example was one of those 'one time' things, I was just reading through the Zygulski article on Polish hussars ("Arms & Armour Annual").
Pretty intriguing characters, questions on whether they actually wore the wings in combat, then there were these splintering lances.

Would have loved to have seen Stone's notes on this one.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

There is the possibility this is a boar hunting spear, which often have 'wings' to prevent the prey from coming up the shaft, though these elongated side 'blades' seem contrary to the extended wings typically seen.

Jim, your suggestion is food for thought but this weapon does not fit the functional criteria exhibited by every boar spear that I have seen in person or in the literature. The head on this example is much less substantial than the norm, keeping in mind that a boar spear is designed to deal with a thick-skinned animal with a low center of gravity, consisting of several hundred pounds of muscle and bad temper that power a set of tusks that will disembowel any man, horse, or dog that gets close enough. The long blades on either side of the shaft don't do much good because the spear head, properly designed, is what does the job. The wool tassels are superfluous. A simple cross-piece (either forged integral with the socket as common in southern Europe, or a piece of antler or iron lashed or riveted to the shaft below the head in the German lands) suffices as a limit to excessive penetration.

Here are two "classic" examples of boar spear of a style common to the German-speaking countries, with antler-tip crosspieces lashed on with rawhide. The leaf-shaped blade on the left is a variation encountered in other northern and eastern European countries as well.

[Philip]

Here is an example of the same concept as used by some cavalry units in the Chinese Empire during the Qing Dynasty. The image was painted by Fr Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Xining), a Jesuit scholar/artist resident at the court of the Qianlong Emperor, whose armies conducted a series of campaigns in Central Asia in the mid 18th cent. that led to East Turkestan's eventual annexation. The portrait is of A-yuxi, a Dzungar Mongol chief persuaded to change sides and serve in the Chinese ranks to avoid execution as a prisoner of war, and is shown dressed and equipped in the typical style of the high Qing era. Castiglione's paintings and drawings are an invaluable documentary source for the military equipment and disposition of troops during this campaign, since some Jesuits actually accompanied the forces into the field and sketched troops and battles veri simile.

Note the lance. Under the stiletto-like head is a straight slender steel blade attached to the wood shaft by two iron hoops. The primary purpose of this knifelike attachment appears to be twofold -- to prevent the lance head from being cut off by an opponent's saber stroke, and to discourage an opponent on foot from grasping the end of the weapon in a close melée with infantry.

[Jim McDougall]

Agreed Philip, the boar spear suggestion was simply noted as this pike seems to defy any other examples (those curious hooks and the side pieces). The example of the Qianlong cavalry rider with lance coincides somewhat with some other reading I came across concerning pikes, and the adding of such protective side plates/blades.

In "Arms and Armor of the English Civil Wars" by David Blackmore, p.75, discussing pikes it notes the narrowing of the ash stave toward the head presented the likelihood of the pike being sheared by sword cut. Also the thinner part of the stave could break upon force of impact and penetration.
He notes long thin steel plates (cheeks or langets) but is unclear if these refer to the reinforcing/attachment langets screwed into the shaft or added plates as seen on this example.

Having sharpened blades on the sides of the shaft as mentioned with the Chinese example makes sense toward the grabbing of the end of the weapon. But as we have seen, this does not seem to have been a known element in any degree.

With lances, it seems that the purpose in use was not impalement, but jabbing thrusts, at least as described in most of what I have found. In the Battle of San Pascual in California in the Mexican war, the casualties of the US forces suffered as many as a dozen or more lance wounds each.
With pikes, I'm not sure as they were literally a barrier against encroaching cavalry typically, and the impact must have been pretty powerful in a fast moving target.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Having sharpened blades on the sides of the shaft as mentioned with the Chinese example makes sense toward the grabbing of the end of the weapon. But as we have seen, this does not seem to have been a known element in any degree.

.

It may have been more of a contingency factor, but why else would these steel flanges have stood proud of the shaft's circumference and have bevelled edges? If their sole purpose was to guard against enemy saber cuts, wouldn't normal langets have done that job with less cost and production time?

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

.

With lances, it seems that the purpose in use was not impalement, but jabbing thrusts, at least as described in most of what I have found.
With pikes, I'm not sure as they were literally a barrier against encroaching cavalry typically, and the impact must have been pretty powerful in a fast moving target.

Jim, I agree wholeheartedly with your conclusion on the use of lances. A jab can be debilitating and fatal if rightly placed, and skewering an opponent at the gallop can have obvious disadvantages to with the weapon stuck in an opponent especially at speeds of 20-30 mph.

However I do believe that massed infantry formations with pikes could provide an effective barrier against horse -- if you would look at manuals of pike drill, there is a position requiring the soldier to hold the butt against the ground and steady it with his foot, with the weapon pointing forward and upward. Seems to me that the angle of the shaft would be just right to level with the rider's body or the horse's head. And from what I have read, horses are smart enough to get nervous when they see sharp things pointed at their chests and faces. (hence the popularity of those wooden barriers called chevaux-de-frise, which provided rows of upward-pointing wooden stakes intended for the same purpose).