16th century halberd; origin??

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Often associated with Halberd artwork is the Ethnographic nature of warfare in those days... Camp followers abound bringing to life the weaponry of the day for comparison......I include a weapon development chart and various battle scenes..including Pavia between The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Francis 1 of France.

There was even a fighting technique as displayed by the two exponents below described as "A Depiction of halberd combat, from the Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica, a martial arts manual by 16th century German master Paulus Hector Mair".

[Jim McDougall]

Beautifully posted illustrations Ibrahiim!!! This adds fascinating dimension to understanding more on these interesting polearms, for those like myself, who are new to deeper study of them. The spirit of our dear departed friend Michael, the Mighty Matchlock.....lives on!!!

Fernando, I join Reventlov in envy of your having such a resource!! This as well as your connections with Mr. Daehnhardt are certainly key elements augmenting your outstanding knowledge and experience with these arms.
Your sharing these kinds of details really help in these discussions.

Thank you all for this great discussion.........really helps to learning more on these halberds and their history .

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... Fernando ...This as well as your connections with Mr. Daehnhardt are certainly key elements augmenting your outstanding knowledge and experience with these arms. ..

Thank you Jim; yes, but not only .

And speaking of evolution of (polearm) forms, let me show you how it went chez moi.


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[Reventlov]

Additional food for thought... Here is the only halberd (apart from Fernando's) that I have found so far with one of these star marks that is not of the same general type as the other examples above. Perhaps it is not really the same mark however - the star has seven points, the outline is more oval than pentagonal, and the placement of the mark on the back-spike is different than all the other examples. It is in the Castle Museum of Pszczyna, in Poland.

Coincidentally, a halberd of exactly the same form appeared in the most recent auction of Thomas Del Mar. This weapon bears a different mark, that resembles a pair of tiny halberd heads. This mark also appears on a pollaxe-like halberd in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, and on a glaive in Vienna from the bodyguard of Ferdinand I, engraved with the date 1551. I haven't been able to find a photo of this glaive... it has inventory number A869, and should be listed in volume 2 of Thomas and Gamber's Katalog der Leibrüstkammer. I only have the first volume...

http://www.thomasdelmar.com/Catalogu...6/lot0150.html

[fernando]

Looks like the star was in the menu of countless smiths ... with the maximum possible variations.

[fernando]

Hi Zauberflöte,
I took the liberty to enquire about the mark in your halberd to the Graz Museum in Styria and here is the answer i got from Daniela Assel, a scholar of that institution:

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actually we do have a halberd in our collection which has the same mark. I am sorry but we cannot identify the halberd smith but most of our staff weapons were bought from Upper Austria in the second half of the 16th century.

[Zauberflöte]

Originally Posted by fernando

Hi Zauberflöte,
I took the liberty to enquire about the mark in your halberd to the Graz Museum in Styria and here is the answer i got from Daniela Assel, a scholar of that institution:

.
actually we do have a halberd in our collection which has the same mark. I am sorry but we cannot identify the halberd smith but most of our staff weapons were bought from Upper Austria in the second half of the 16th century.

Excellent, many thanks for your pro-active enquiry!

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by fernando

Looks like the star was in the menu of countless smiths ... with the maximum possible variations.

In trying to research these markings, while included in some degree in the corpus of notes and compendiums of markings, it seems those found on polearms are much more esoteric and not as easily resourced.

Here we have seen the variations of such markings found on polearms, and I was thinking that perhaps these were possibly arsenal, guild or other significant indicators They seem pretty consistently placed in location usually on the spike of halberds and somewhat same on other forms.

In researching some Italian polearms, I found that a number of them of the 16th century , both halberds and falcons (guisarme) were marked with distinctive scorpion marks (many with +B on the scorpion body).
It seems that these were from Brescia, Lombardy, Venice and others, so singular arsenal provenance seems out .
What I thought was interesting was that in European context these polearms were in cases referred to as a 'scorpion'.
So here was an instance of weapon 'description' aligned with a unique type marking on their blades, which does not seem to apply to armoury, maker or guild.

So I am wondering, if such a prospect might come into play with some instances of markings found on some polearms.
A long shot to be sure, but wondering if others had considered.

[Reventlov]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Here we have seen the variations of such markings found on polearms, and I was thinking that perhaps these were possibly arsenal, guild or other significant indicators.

Hi Jim,
While searching the collection of the Swiss Museum, I found a couple halberds that might offer a hint along these lines. In a small number of cases two different marks appear, each individual mark appearing more commonly alone... One of the marks is a familiar star mark. The repeated marks each include a similarly shaped mark of a leaf or spade, though the mark is executed in two different ways... coincidence? One possibility could be that one mark is that of the smith, the other that of an arsenal...