[urbanspaceman]

My maternal ancestors were Grahams: not a bunch you wanted to tangle with; ask any local Armstrong or Robson - of which there are many. Oddly enough, during my musical career (as a leader of multiple bands) both those clan descendants were often present and invariable proved troublesome.
There is an article by Jeffrey Ross that I will attach regarding the development of baskets. I am assuming it is permitted to disseminate this work; I know I am happy for my Shotley Bridge book to be freely available in pdf form; just ask and it shall be yours, as I have digitally compressed it for screen viewing and emailing.
It seems - Europe wide - all baskets followed progressively on from cruciform hilts. I also understand early baskets over here were regarded as Irish and were, initially, largely asymmetric, rapidly developing into full baskets but also remaining as asymmetrical Mortuary swords. The asymmetric hilts were, obviously, not left behind as the complete basket evolved.
None of this explains that hole in the pommel of my initial image posting though.