Styrian basket hilted sword and Styrian dusage

[Victrix]

Wow! Previously I did not want to comment on the Styrian dusägge because the handguard and the pommel looked strange to me. I think partly because of the way the photos were made but also because the shapes are unusual. Also it doesn’t help that I view the photos on my personal iPhone 12 mini! My eyes are not as good as they once were. Now I see the sword illustrated in my own copy of the catalogue and the blade especially is simply stunning. I wish I had known these swords were for sale!

In one of his books Ewart Oakeshott argues that many medieaval swords which were dismissed as fakes are in fact original! ItÂ’s a risk investors face, dismissing unusual items as fakes when they are not. It must be remembered that older items are individually handmade and were not standardized so they are all different. With that said itÂ’s also important to beware of modern copies and fraud, not an easy task for a collector. In many cases I guess we will never know the truth.