Very large, heavy and well-formed pommel of brazil nut shape. Long flat tang of rectangular section. Straight cross of indeterminate (possibly corroded hexagonal) section, not widening to the tips but thickened in the middle over the blade. Long, very slightly tapering, rather narrow blade with a well-marked narrow fuller running two-thirds of the length. There is no real point, but the lower few inches of the blade are heavily corroded and a narrow point may have worn or broken away.
There are traces of a mark inlaid in ?copper in the fullers of the blade.
Length: 119 cm
Weight: 1.47 kg
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart
13th Century
Circa
1225
-
1300
The style of the pommel suggests that this sword probably dates well before 1300, probably c.1225-1250 or earlier. Pommels of this form, are found in dateable context as early as c.950, and are shown on sculptured figures in Germany as late as c. 1280, but rarely after this date.
This sword has a wide, thin blade used for cutting and slashing targets such as mail, leather clothing and padded fabric armour. The guard is a simple cross piece of iron which prevents an opponent’s blade sliding up your sword to cut your hand. The shape of the pommel, the piece at the end of the hilt, is like a brazil nut, giving rise to the name of this type of sword. This sword has traces of a mark in copper alloy on the blade.
Inlay
composed of
copper
( traces)
Pommel
Depth 5.7 cm
Width 13 cm
Tang
Length 16 cm
Blade
Length 98 cm
Cross
Width 22.5 cm
Blade At Hilt
Width 5 cm
Decoration
Casting (process) : Sword, cast with inlaid copper? decoration
Accession number: HEN.M.185-1933
Primary reference Number: 18814
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Hand-and-a-half sword" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/18814 Accessed: 2024-11-05 07:51:24
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/18814
|title=Hand-and-a-half sword
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-05 07:51:24|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-18814
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