Dagger from a Rifle Set
- Dated: 1732-1733 (Early Modern)
- Culture: Turkish
- Medium: steel, decorated with gold, rubies (or spinels), beryls
- Measurements: 1 3/4 x 11 13/16 x 5/8 in. (4.4 x 30 x 1.7 cm)
Source & Copyright: The Walters Art Museum
(via lehellequin)
Ceremonial Sword
- Dated: 18th century
- Culture: Eastern Tibet or Mongolia
- Medium: Steel blade, jade handle; silver sheath inlaid with coral and turquoise; silk tassel
- Measurements: 21 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (54.6 x 8.89 cm)
Source: © Museum Associates 2011 - LACMA
(via neverbeencaughtever)
The Sword of His Serene Highness Ludwig Adolf Peter, Prince Of Sayn-Wittgenstein
- The sword is mounted in three colours of gold, features Vienna Gold Marks for 1803, and the maker’s mark of Josef Wolfgang Schmidt
- Measurements: 74cm; 29 1/8in blade
- Sidenote: His Serene Highness Ludwig Adolf Peter, Prince Of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1769-1843) was the Imperial Russian Field Marshal And ‘The Saviour Of St. Petersburg’ in 1812
The sword comes with a curved double-edged blade towards the point, cut with a long shallow fuller on each side, etched and gilt with scrolls of foliage. It features a grenadier and a trophy on a blued panel, etched and gilt with a hatched pattern at the forte.
Finely chased hilt in three colours of gold, the principal areas against a punched recessed ground, comprising a pair shield-shaped langets each decorated with a large acanthus leaf. It has vertically recurved quillons decorated with laurel foliage, the rear stamped with marks and formed with a hemispherical finial.
The forward joined to a robust knuckle chain joined at the top to the pommel by a scrolling bracket decorated en suite, tapering grip with a central panel of scale pattern bordered by beadwork panels and a running pattern of scrolls and diamond-shaped panels.
The top portion is surmounted by a pair of oak fruit and foliage festoons, finely fluted pommel, oval pommel cap chased with matching scrolls enclosing an expanded flowerhead. The original wooden scabbard is entirely covered with polished fishskin, fitted with gold chape, locket and a pair of bands all finely chased en suite with the hilt.
Source & Coryright: Thomas del Mar
(via iotaorionis)
Hunting Sword
- Dated: circa 1851
- Culture: French (Paris)
- Meium: silver, cast, chased, partly gilt; gilt copper; steel
- Dimensions: lenght(overall, sword in scabbard) 24 3/4 in. (63 cm)
This hunting sword is a masterpiece of the Gothic Revival style and a virtuoso demonstration of mid-nineteenth-century design and craftsmanship, which were greatly stimulated by the series of international exhibitions held in London and Paris in the 1840s–60s.
It is virtually identical to one executed by an otherwise unrecorded craftsman, Marcet, for the Paris firm of silversmiths and jewelers Marrel Frères, which was shown at the Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace, London, in 1851. That sword was especially praised by the exhibition’s jurors, who noted that its design “left nothing to be desired.”
As a measure of their success, Marrel Frères received a medal for their display, and no fewer than five of their objects were purchased by the English commissioners for the new Museum of Practical Art, the forerunner of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The hunting sword was among these, valued at the substantial sum of £200, and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This sword differs from the London example only in an ornamental band around the throat of the scabbard. The grip is fashioned as a deep architectural niche formed of pierced strapwork and foliage, partly gilt, into which is set a figure, cast and chased in the round, of Saint Hubert, patron of the hunt.
The cross-shaped guard is inhabited by three dogs, modeled with naturalistic detail, in pursuit of a fox, which cowers at the front of the quillon block; on the end of one quillon an eagle seizes its prey, a crane. The broad, double-edged blade is chiseled with a series of interrupted fullers on each side.
The scabbard is of copper, cast and chased with Gothic tracery and gilt by electroplating, an innovative technique that enjoyed great vogue during the mid-nineteenth century. Encircling the top of the scabbard is a silver relief representing the miraculous vision of Saint Hubert; another silver panel in the center of the scabbard is embossed with trophies of the chase.
An inscription, MARREL PARIS, is found at the base of the hilt and tip of the scabbard. From the mid-sixteenth century, the French were unrivaled in the field of highly decorated, deluxe arms. This sword demonstrates that this tradition had not diminished 300 years later.
(via iotaorionis)
Scottish Basket-hilt Broadsword Infantry Officers 1798 Pattern
- Used by the Wellington Army
The 1798 Pattern was the first attempt of the British to standardize sword patterns for the Scottish regiments. This standardization made the pattern become very “loose” in some aspects, with blades coming from Solingen, England and Scotland.
In the case of this sword we have a magnificent brass hilt, a truly impressive piece but fundamentally weaker than the steel hilts. The triple fullered blade is 84.5 cm long, and it has some very distinct temper lines. These kind of swords were carried in the battle of Waterloo.
The blade is marked “James Woolley” on one side and “Warranted” on the other one. The name stands for James Woolley from Camberwell who set up his shop on 74 Edmund Street Camberwell in 1798, a few miles south of London Bridge.
Source & Copyright: Swords Collection
(via iotaorionis)
Etched German Glaive
- Dated: Mid-16th Century
- Dimensions: Length of metal 19 ½”, overall 88”
With broad falchion-like blade with cutting-edge drawn out to a point at the bottom, etched at a later date on one side with foliated panels within ropework borders containing a Landsknecht on horse, a female figure playing a lute.
There are also depicted a helmeted naked female figure holding a chalice and a sword, and on the other with a ship, a seated male figure playing a harp, and a naked female figure holding a flaming torch in one hand and a horn in the other.
The glaive has integral circular socket mounts and side-straps decorated with original etched foliated strapwork; on original wooden staff of circular section (lower two thirds replaced with detachable bolt).
Source & Copyright: Antique Weapon Store
