German sword for coment

[Radboud]

Hi Serder, thanks for showing this sword. Is it from your collection?

They're a great sword and appear to have a long service history. Often associated with naval use, this is likely incorrect though as they are quite a common type with lots of examples out there. They are also surprisingly uniform given the time they're from.

The Royal Armouries online catalogue lists at least three examples:

IX.172

IX.182

IX.184

I think this one is a composite

Plus there are several in the Dutch National Military Museum.

Forum member Cathy Brimage started a good topic on these with comments by Dutch military historian and author J.P. Puype, who theorised that these were cavalry swords.

Certainly in the catalogue "Van Maurits naar Munster - tactiek en triomf van het Staatse leger" by J.P. Puype & A.A. Wiekart they show one on p.g. 102 described as Broadsword for Cavalry circa 1585 - 1600 with the note that the had a long service life.

Personally, they seem short for cavalry use, but I suspect that there is a Dutch connection as the fledgling nation came out of the 80 years of war with the Spanish.

On your sword the Crown over OT mark seems to be fairly prevalent on the examples I've seen, and it is present on the example I have. I know it's popular to associate every T under a crown stamp as being from Toledo, but I doubt that is the case here. Why stamp the blade "Made in Solingen" if it was made in Toledo when the popular trend was to forge blades as having been made in Toledo?