German State Glaive converted to executioners use in the city of Algiers

[Vendredi1448]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Thank you Vendredi for sharing this fascinating and well documented item. I'd like to join the others in noting the importance of finding the historic stories that most all weapons have, and the very purpose of creating this forum has been to investigate, discuss and preserve these details.

This is a fantastic weapon, and despite the grisly history (which of course is often part and parcel of weapons by their intrinsic purpose), this is an absolutely brilliant entry!!!

The subject of 'executioners' swords has come up many times through the years, with most being of course of the broadsword type. This is a most unusual form and as noted, fascinating to follow it through these varied contexts.

Thank you again!!!!

Thank you very much, Jim. Your comments mean a great deal to me, especially given everything you have done to build this community over the years. One of the things I have always admired about this forum is the emphasis on preserving not only the weapons themselves, but also the histories that accompany them.

I agree that executioners’ weapons are most often represented by the familiar broad swords, which is one of the reasons this glaive immediately captured my attention. Its unusual form, together with its documented journey from a seventeenth-century Austrian court weapon to an executioner’s glaive in Ottoman Algiers, makes it a particularly fascinating survivor.

Thank you again for creating a place where these artifacts and their histories can be researched, discussed, and preserved.