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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 736
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This is my last adquisition, german sword with 32 in total length.
Do You have some information about age or name of this kind of sword ? Thanks in avance Carlos |
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#2 |
EAAF Staff
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Upstate New York, USA
Posts: 910
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First a caveat, I am straying quite a bit out of my comfort zone and you should not weigh my comments very heavily. Hopefully a forum member more knowledgeable about such swords will recognize exactly what your sword is and assist.
The blade appears to be very precisely made with a somewhat complex transition from a single-edged section just beyond the ricasso into a double-edged (one edge may be false) of flattened diamond cross section. From the markings and the cross section in the near half, I cannot help but wonder if this is a military blade from sometime in the 19th century even into the first decades of the 20th, when there was some revival of straight blades for the cavalry. The level and proficiency of the decoration and finish of the hilt does not come up to the standard of the blade. This makes me wonder if this might have been a composite made up in the late 19th or early 20th century when antique arms had a period of great popularity as decorations. Now, why this should not be considered a final verdict: My first Scottish basket-hilt, bought in the early 1970s, is surely such a composite - like your sword, the blade is a very serious piece of work and more like a rapier blade than anything that should have a Scottish basket. And the basket is the military model of, if I remember correctly, 1828 - only half has been cut away so the sword would hang flat against the wall. Years later, however, I showed the very well regarded out-of-town dealer (where I had gotten the 'Scottish' sword) a proud recent acquisition from a gun show and he denounced and dismissed it as a worthless composite. Years later I bought a book in the same shop (pre-Internet days) that made it clear that my worthless 'made-up' composite was a great example of a Spanish colonial espada ancha. So we will have to wait for the fat lady to sing. |
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#3 |
Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Wirral
Posts: 1,204
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I suppose it is meant to represent some vaguely landsknect type sword but the blade looks much more modern in style and in the markings ... perhaps late 19th C . To me ( and I am no expert on such things ) it looks like a home spun hilting of a 19th C sword blade .... made as a wall hanger / decorator or theatrical piece.
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#4 |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Nipmuc USA
Posts: 496
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The blade is that of Clemen & Jung, registered in 1860.
Cheers GC Last edited by fernando; 9th April 2017 at 07:27 PM. Reason: Sorry ... no links to active commercial sites |
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#5 | |
Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Wirral
Posts: 1,204
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#6 |
Arms Historian
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,896
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Glen and Redline, spot on!!! Clemens & Jung, and as Lee astutely observed of course, a 19th century military blade. I agree this is most likely a theatrical item , and the much earlier period(s) purported by the hilt elements composite with a number at the forte (109) consistent with these kinds of circumstances with sword commerce in these times.
Lee, I very much related to the tale of the dealers who preyed on young collectors back in those days (for me mid 60s into 70s) and were masters of embellished stories to hawk their weapons. I too recall being hoodwinked out of some great items which were dismissed essentially as 'junk', only to discover years later to my dismay what they really were. One of my most mourned losses was ....an espada ancha !! Carlos, please know that while this sword may be a later theatrical piece, these are very much antiquities in their own right, and this may have been part of a famed theatrical group or theater in the late 19th c. There have been many remarkable items thought to be authentically early Spanish from areas here in the Southwest which have turned out to be theatrical yet have their own unique historical appeal. |
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