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Hand-and-a-half war sword or bastard sword. Type XIIIA. Broad, oval wheel pommel, the central boss rectngular in shape and cut breadthwise with two deep parallel grooves. No rivet button. The whole pommel is very flat, and light seeming. Long tang covered with 19th century grip, obviously made at the same time and for the same collection as HEN.M.188-1933. Long straight cross of hexagonal section, widening a little toward the tips. There appear to be traces of some sort of plating on the pommel and the cross, of ? silver or ? tin. Blade of flat hexagonal section with a narrow rather shallow fuller running some one-third of the length. This fuller on one side runs up under the mid-part of the cross, and the other stops about 3 cm short of it. Fairly sharp point.
History note: Sold at the Helbing Gallery in Munich 1908
Length: 114.5 cm
Weight: 1.4 kg
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart
14th Century, Early
Circa
1300
-
1400
There is a very strange patination on this blade, showing that it has corroded in contact with something wrinkled, like fabric. This is strongly suggested by a band about 2" wide where it has clearly been wrapped round by a strip of woven material, maybe a belt? It does not look as if it has been in a scabbard.
Western European
Plating
composed of
silver
( or tin)
Bound Tang
composed of
leather
Tang
Length 29.5 cm
Blade
Length 89 cm
Cross
Width 20 cm
Blade At Hilt
Width 4 cm
Pommel
Casting (process) : Sword, cast, with traces of plating on the pommel
Accession number: HEN.M.187-1933
Primary reference Number: 18824
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:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Hand-and-a-half sword" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/18824 Accessed: 2025-06-22 07:35:35
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/18824
|title=Hand-and-a-half sword
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-06-22 07:35:35|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-18824
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa25/HEN_M_187_1933_281_29.jpg"
alt="Hand-and-a-half sword"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Hand-and-a-half sword</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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