Basket hilted swords

[stephen wood]

I also think the florid acid etching on the blade is Victorian or maybe earlier. The claim to be Wallace's sword seems ridiculous to us but would not have seemed so in the past. Quite a few swords said to have belonged to historical characters actually have provenance.

[Cathey]

Hi Stephen,

I think the engraving was purely patriotic, however I doubt we will ever know what the thinking was behind this one at the time. Anyway, I thought I would move on to another interesting area, the use of the S-Bar in hilt design. I note that Eljay has already posted one of his examples so I thought I would add this one with the unusual Black Jappaned hilt

BASKET-HILT Scottish Infantry Officer’s
Date Circa 1690-1710 (17th - 18th Century)?
Nationality Scottish
Overall Length 96.5 cm (38 inches)
Blade length 83 cm (32.7 inches)
Blade widest point 3 cm (1.2 inches)
Hilt widest point
Inside grip length
Marks, etc The numbers 1 5 1 5 inscribed in the fuller followed by to small marks inlaid with brass.

Description
BASKET-HILT Scottish Infantry Officer’s broadsword circa 1690-1710. Blade 32 3/4 ins. (83cm). Hilt retains japanning and is the S type basket. Blade is in good condition and has what appears to be the numbers 1 5 1 5 inscribed in the fuller followed by to small marks inlaid with brass. Grip is made of wood.

References:
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ARMS COLLECTORS: BOOK OF Edged Weapons. Pp200 plate 5
BEZDEK, Richard H. SWORDS AND SWORD MAKERS OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND pp 371
BOTTOMLEY, Andrew. Catalogue No 6 item no 580 Pp78
CURTIS, T. Lysle Price guide Militaria Arms & Armour 1993. Pp108
DARLING.A.D. Weapons of the Highland Regiments 1740-1780. Pp15.
OAKESHOTT, E. European Weapons and Armour. (See Claymore) pp 175-182.

Cheers Cathey and Rex

[Jim McDougall]

This is an outstanding example, and Cathey I would like to say again how grateful I am that you are posting such magnificent examples of these basket hilts here!! Since these have been a true passion of mine since very young, it means a lot to see them and to have the opportunity to learn from them. There has been little written on them for many years, and I look forward to the Baron of Earshall's work. The fact that he has been working on it for so many years is testament to his keen attention to detail and accuracy, and I am sure it will be a monumental work for generations of collectors and scholars to come.

I wanted to add some notes regarding the blade and inscription, but placed it on a new thread so as not to detract from attention to the hilt work.
It is established that most writers on these hilts deliberately avoided attention to the blades on these swords to keep focus on the hilts, which are truly a complex enough subject alone, so I wanted to follow that course and avoid duplicating my previous faux pas.

I hope those interested in notes on this or other pertaining to the blades on basket hilted swords will visit the other thread as well. Thank you.

[cornelistromp]

it is unfortunate that this thread is a kind of controlled/guided and the debate is limited.

Any discussion about toureg blades in basket hilts, the different moon marks and about a subsequent 19th-century? dating of a Wallace related patriotic etching is interesting and should not be smothered but actually be discussed here without "censorship".

it is only one opinion, please see it as constructive criticism because it is a wonderful thread.

best,

[Jim McDougall]

I would like to thank you guys for the input, and would add here that I am fully in accord with your views......here each weapon should be observed and discussed openly and with unrestricted discourse on all aspects.
My thinking was admittedly toward early writers on Scottish swords such as Whitelaw who noted he had deliberately avoided attention to blades on these as they were virtually all imported. Obviously a book on Scottish arms makers would be less than well served discussing German blades.

However, here we are observing and examining wonderful examples of these incarnations of the melding of trade and vintage blades and wonderfully fashioned hilts and to learn from the stories these components in union can share with us.

With that I am going to reintegrate the other thread into this one, where it might be in proper union in the same manner, and fully open to discussion.
While I can understand how certain subtopics can become distracting, I am confident participants here can successfully maintain proportion in the overall discussion.

Thank you very much guys!

[Cathey]

Dear Jim

My understanding is the Ethnographic Weapons forum exists to deal in detail with weapons such as African broadswords, kaskara and takouba etc, unless I am mistaken this is the European Armoury.

When I started this thread in January 2009, it proved very hard to keep going as I had hoped it would be devoted to the Basket hilted swords and draw out like minded enthusiasts. Thanks to Eljay’s contributions, for the first time I feel encouraged that it might actually take off. If someone visits the thread expecting to see basket hilts and get drowned in debate over African blades I am concerned that they will just move on and I suspect we will lose the opportunity to see what else is out there in the world of Basket hilted swords.



Regards Cathey

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Cathey,
Let me clarify what I was trying to say here. I do understand the 'debate' on African swords was becoming somewhat distracting as obviously an African made blade has nothing to do with discussion on Scottish basket hilts, that is 'technically'. However the crux of the points toward the kaskara blade were whether the moons were European (i.e. German, the primary provider of blades for Scottish hilts) or indeed 'African'. The reason that was important was in determining the congruence of this blade with the hilt.

While somewhat digressive, it was in degree relevant to the discussion. However, I did agree that the discussion was becoming more complex on the moons, notably a distinct anomaly on blades occurring with Scottish hilts, so I moved to a new thread accordingly.

When it came to the '1515' blade, my objective was to avoid another digression to 'blade discussion', however my thinking in that respect was completely misguided, as well pointed out by Ibrahiim and Jasper, and I'm sure you agree, these swords should be discussed comprehensively on all aspects.

Therefore, my suggestion was to return my attention to the '1515' blade to this thread, and eliminate the other thread on blades on Scottish swords....the one on the 'moons' remains as separate as per originally intended.

Indeed, this forum is intended to field discussions on European arms and armour, however on occasional the ethnographic field can of course become somewhat entwined due to colonial and trade circumstances. In my opinion discussions should not be so fragile as not to allow a sometimes broader spectrum of subject matter to be introduced as required. I do agree that these topics should remain incidental and not take over the original subject of discussion, as became the case with the moons and kaskara blade.

I sincerely apologize to you and the forum for this unintended interruption on this valuable thread, and hope we might continue this outstanding review of these most important Scottish swords......and their blades, together

The posts from the 'other' thread are joined here as posts #94 and #95.

Thank you again Cathy for this thread, and for your understanding.

All very best regards,
Jim