An Italian Lugged Spear?

Philip · 27th July 2021, 05:12 AM

It has a businesslike look to it, and shows signs of being round the block more than a couple times -- quite encouraging.

Rather unusual and intriguing thing. In terms of overall form, it seems to be a transition between the "Bohemian ear-spoon" or winged pike and its descendent, the korseke / corsesca / chauve-souris family of polearms, which have increasingly longer lateral blades or wings culminating in the beautiful Italian "bat-wing" type (corsesca a pipistrello ) of the first half of the sixteenth century.

Looking at the familiar Bashford Dean evolutionary chart of polearms published by the Met, the transitional nature of yours would probably date it to around the mid-15th cent. My guess is that the socket of yours once had long langets which were riveted to the shaft, these being removed long ago.

A couple of things are out-of-the-ordinary compared to the norm for examples the generations of similar weapons evolving from ear to bat. One is the rather broad point, with edges curving to an ogival tip. Usually, the familiar versions have a markedly triangular shape to the central blade, with straight edges tapering to a thin point. In addition, all of the published examples I have seen have either a rhombic (diamond shaped) or a ribbed cross-section all the way from root to point, not transitioning from one to the other along the way. Lastly, I'm somewhat mystified by the symmetrical indentations in the blade profile, as stated previously, the norm is straight edges giving a triangular shape. Perhaps some other forumites can post examples of weapons with features similar to these.

27th July 2021, 05:12 AM	#3
Philip Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: California Posts: 1,036	It has a businesslike look to it, and shows signs of being round the block more than a couple times -- quite encouraging. Rather unusual and intriguing thing. In terms of overall form, it seems to be a transition between the "Bohemian ear-spoon" or winged pike and its descendent, the korseke / corsesca / chauve-souris family of polearms, which have increasingly longer lateral blades or wings culminating in the beautiful Italian "bat-wing" type (corsesca a pipistrello ) of the first half of the sixteenth century. Looking at the familiar Bashford Dean evolutionary chart of polearms published by the Met, the transitional nature of yours would probably date it to around the mid-15th cent. My guess is that the socket of yours once had long langets which were riveted to the shaft, these being removed long ago. A couple of things are out-of-the-ordinary compared to the norm for examples the generations of similar weapons evolving from ear to bat. One is the rather broad point, with edges curving to an ogival tip. Usually, the familiar versions have a markedly triangular shape to the central blade, with straight edges tapering to a thin point. In addition, all of the published examples I have seen have either a rhombic (diamond shaped) or a ribbed cross-section all the way from root to point, not transitioning from one to the other along the way. Lastly, I'm somewhat mystified by the symmetrical indentations in the blade profile, as stated previously, the norm is straight edges giving a triangular shape. Perhaps some other forumites can post examples of weapons with features similar to these.