Sword: HEN.M.236-1933

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

• Sword

Categories

• Weapons

Description

Sword. Blackened hilt. Long pod-shaped pommel, fluted. No button. Knuckle-guard of vaguely oval section, the top flattened, turned up through a right-angle and screwed into the side of the pommel; it widens at midpoint, where a loop-guard springs from it on each side to join the top of a shallow cup-guard. The ends of the loop-guards are scrolled towards the forward quillon. Short quillons, curled over towards the blade in tight spirals. The back of the hilt is a mirror image of the front. There is a massive quillon-block bluntly joined and incised with lines rotating from that point. The cup-guard is coarsely decorated with overlapping scale-shaped motifs, each pieced à jour with circular holes. The upper edge is decorated with a scalloped frill, and pressed à jour. The grip which is original has lost all its binding except for Turks' heads at top and bottom; it is of dark wood, swelling in the middle and facetted vertically with eight faces.
Long tapering blade of flattened diamond section, the faces hollowed with a strong shoulder below the hilt. There are traces of engraved decorative motifs along the forte, but these are too worn to be identified except for a small floral piece just below the guard.
Norman, hilt type 87.

Notes

History note: Unknown before testator, 'Abbotsford', Downs Road, St Helen's Park, Hastings, Sussex,

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

17th Century, Mid
Circa 1640 CE - 1660 CE

Note

A similar sword is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Reg. no. M2774-1931). Another similar one is in the church at Bridgnorth, Shropshire, said to have belonged to Colonel Billingslay, who was killed in the churchyard in 1646.