Mortuary Sword - first use of the term?

corrado26 · 9th January 2022, 08:55 AM

Many thanks Jim for your answer and interesting contribution. I checked the type of my sword with help of the book of A.V.B. Norman and found the pommel of my sword on page 243 as "pommel 14", dated to the third quater of the 17th century. This dating would very well fit to the portrait on the blade of a uniform bearer with allonge wig. This type of wig certainly was out of fashion at the time of the funeral of the French king Louis XV. in 1774. The equivalent hilt is shown on page 199, drawing 112 dated from the 1640s or even earlier. As Norman writes "their presence in many English country houses, armouries, and some churches as well as the similarity of their decoration to that found on what collectors call "mortuary swords" which appear to be exclusively English, suggest their country of origin".

9th January 2022, 08:55 AM	#7
corrado26 Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Black Forest, Germany Posts: 1,226	Many thanks Jim for your answer and interesting contribution. I checked the type of my sword with help of the book of A.V.B. Norman and found the pommel of my sword on page 243 as "pommel 14", dated to the third quater of the 17th century. This dating would very well fit to the portrait on the blade of a uniform bearer with allonge wig. This type of wig certainly was out of fashion at the time of the funeral of the French king Louis XV. in 1774. The equivalent hilt is shown on page 199, drawing 112 dated from the 1640s or even earlier. As Norman writes "their presence in many English country houses, armouries, and some churches as well as the similarity of their decoration to that found on what collectors call "mortuary swords" which appear to be exclusively English, suggest their country of origin".