Odd sword that sold at Dorotheum

Jim McDougall · 23rd September 2013, 04:57 PM

Thank you so much Jasper for the great entry! It is most interesting to see the similarity in these Venetian swords of 17th century, and how much influence the Timurid/Safavid downturned quillons had on certain European forms. In Italy the 'crab claw' hilts were certainly well established, and if not mistaken some degree of this diffused into German work.

In the case of this example from Venice the quillons are without terminals, however the interesting crosshatch designs remind me of the familiar fir cone of Augsburg marks. In our example of discussion I am not sure if the Nasrid character and Persian/Ottoman style quillon terminals would necessarily correspond to swords used by Venetians vs. the Ottomans.
It does seem clear that this Dalmatian associaion would lend well to the Balkan (particularly Bosnian) attribution of this apparant commemorative style sword in these type mounts.

Ibrahiim I will see if I can get the images from the book on the Bosnian example. I think seeing the openwork on this example and the dragon head quillons will better illustrate the connection I am making.

Regarding the pommel, as Jasper well notes, the Oakeshott typologies do not typically work well farther into Renaissance period and later. In these cases the work by A.V.B.Norman is the reference to use, and I will later look into that as well.
It is interesting that the example shown by Jasper also has an octagonal profile, though of clearly different character.

23rd September 2013, 04:57 PM	#12
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,192	Thank you so much Jasper for the great entry! It is most interesting to see the similarity in these Venetian swords of 17th century, and how much influence the Timurid/Safavid downturned quillons had on certain European forms. In Italy the 'crab claw' hilts were certainly well established, and if not mistaken some degree of this diffused into German work. In the case of this example from Venice the quillons are without terminals, however the interesting crosshatch designs remind me of the familiar fir cone of Augsburg marks. In our example of discussion I am not sure if the Nasrid character and Persian/Ottoman style quillon terminals would necessarily correspond to swords used by Venetians vs. the Ottomans. It does seem clear that this Dalmatian associaion would lend well to the Balkan (particularly Bosnian) attribution of this apparant commemorative style sword in these type mounts. Ibrahiim I will see if I can get the images from the book on the Bosnian example. I think seeing the openwork on this example and the dragon head quillons will better illustrate the connection I am making. Regarding the pommel, as Jasper well notes, the Oakeshott typologies do not typically work well farther into Renaissance period and later. In these cases the work by A.V.B.Norman is the reference to use, and I will later look into that as well. It is interesting that the example shown by Jasper also has an octagonal profile, though of clearly different character.