Sword: HEN.M.208-1933

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

• Sword
• long sword
• Reitchwert

Categories

• Weapons

Description

Long sword. (Reitchwert). Very large spherical pommel; long grip spirally grooved and bound with fine wire horizontally with a thicker twisted wire following the grooves. Long quillons of circular section horizontally recurved and knobbed at the tips. Cusped ecusson. There are two ring-guards on the outside, of circular section swelling at midpoint; two branches and back-guards of three bars, with thumb-ring. Long slender blade of flat horizontal section with a stout ricasso and a short strong fuller at the forte. On each side of the fuller, in the ricasso, is a twig mark.

Notes

History note: Probably from Schloss Ambras

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart

Dating

16th Century
Circa 1575 CE - 1600 CE

Note

The extra guards on the hilt of this sword protected the hand from sword blows and from the opponent’s blade sliding along your blade. The hilt has a wire bound handle very characteristic of swords of the period.

There are many surviving examples of almost identical swords. Many of these are in the town armoury at Braz in Austria. A good one is in the Royal Armouries, (.IX 1029), illustrated in 'European Swords and Daggers in the Tower of London, plate 21d.