Big British Basket Hilted Sword

[Victrix]

Originally Posted by Lee

Following a discussion in another thread I promised to present an example of a threaded tang on a British sword dating to around 1600. Having dismounted the pommel, I am doubting that the actual threads that I now see are pre-Victorian. We do know where this sword was in 1881 as it is illustrated, likely with artistic 'restoration,' in Drummond's Ancient Scottish Weapons and it was sold with the W. Wareing Faulder collection in London in 1889. The sword disappeared for about a century until it resurfaced at Christie's in May, 1994. The current academic opinion is that this sword, as presently configured, is English from around 1600 with a reused 14th century blade and this attribution depends considerably upon the pierced, threaded tang button (a feature seen on the Twysden baskethilt at the Met). The Baron of Earlshall did not exclude a Scottish origin in 1996 (Park Lane Arms Fair catalogue, pp. 30-38) but he had largely come around to the English attribution in 2016 in The Scottish Basket Hilted Sword, vol 1, pp. 464-470. I am hardly in a position to argue with the authorities in this field, but I have always wondered if this sword is not an object intended for the same uses as the Scottish 16th century two handed swords.

Hi Lee,

Following on from Jim’s observation that two of the swords in Drummond’s illustration are in fact schiavonas, I wonder if schiavonas were popularly used by Scottish soldiers at the time, or whether these were simply collectors’ items for display? Were there Scotsmen serving in the Venetian armed forces who could have used schiavonas and then brought them home to Scotland on retirement? I know that there were Scotsmen serving in the Imperial Austro-Hungarian armed forces and I believe some Scottish families settled in the region after they were granted land there. Names like Leslie and Loudon spring to mind: https://electricscotland.com/history...o10Austria.pdf.