Basket hilted swords

[Cathey]

With the very early baskets there is certainly been some research to suggest that origins between Scottish, Irish and English are very blurred. There is a particularly good article written on the Sword hilts of the Border Reivers which I will attach, not sure how well it will come up in Jpeg.

When it comes to Shotley bridge this is an interesting area and there are two small books available that deal specifically with Shotley Bridge. They are:
BYGATE, John G The Hollow Blade - The german swordmakers of shotley bridge SC 74 pp.
RICHARDSON, David The Swordmakers of Shotley Bridge, PB Northern History Booklet No: 37, 67pp.

Welcome to a fascinating area of sword history. The basket hilt has a certain amount of romance attached to it, but the variety and the fact that examples can also be attributed to Europe make it particularly interesting area of study. If only swords could talk we would know so much more.

Cheers

Cathey and Rex.

[Cathey]

Hi Will

Actually I think lot 186 at Czerny’s recent sale is correct. Looking at the way they photograph things I think the strange colour is just the way they have cleaned up there photo’s on the black background. If I lighten it up it looks pretty similar to mine, which also has evidence of a dark stain to the leather that is largely worn off. The sword was passed in so it is probably still available at the low reserve. If I didn’t have a good example already I would probably have go at this one.

Cheers Cathey and Rex

[E.B. Erickson]

Cathey - OK, I now understand what you meant: the hilt construction plus the pommel type is only seen with the broad triple fullered blade. I am in agreement with that. The only exception could be the one illustrated in Mazansky.

Ibrahim - The term Irish hilt does not really refer to anything specific historically. Back in the 16-1700s it appears to have been used as a generic reference to basket hilts. Nowdays, it seems to be identified with a particular style of baskethilt construction as seen in the examples shown in this thread.

--Eljay

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Cathey

With the very early baskets there is certainly been some research to suggest that origins between Scottish, Irish and English are very blurred. There is a particularly good article written on the Sword hilts of the Border Reivers which I will attach, not sure how well it will come up in Jpeg.

When it comes to Shotley bridge this is an interesting area and there are two small books available that deal specifically with Shotley Bridge. They are:
BYGATE, John G The Hollow Blade - The german swordmakers of shotley bridge SC 74 pp.
RICHARDSON, David The Swordmakers of Shotley Bridge, PB Northern History Booklet No: 37, 67pp.

Welcome to a fascinating area of sword history. The basket hilt has a certain amount of romance attached to it, but the variety and the fact that examples can also be attributed to Europe make it particularly interesting area of study. If only swords could talk we would know so much more.

Cheers

Cathey and Rex.

Salaams Cathey and thank you very much for your excellent notes and fine detail...

Thanks also to Eljay and everyone for a most excellent thread...

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.