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Description: | Artist: Unknown; Date(s): circa 1650 - 1660; Classification(s): weapons, backsword, casting (process), sword, cast with carved pommel and grip, and delicate engraving on blade; Acquisition: bequeathed by Henderson, James Stewart, 1933-03-16, J.S. Henderson Bequest [HEN.M.222-1933]
Description: Back sword. Tall poppy-head-shaped pommel, with well-formed button, of steel carved into the likeness of the opening petals of a flower with diagonally worked tendrils with eight trefoil heads above a neat scrolled collar. Grip of steel, widening slightly towards the back, decorated in the same manner as the pommel. Knuckle-guard, of square section at top and bottom, with two opposed swellings at midpoint to match the pommel. Single outside loop-guard of the same form and decoration as the knuckle-guard; enclosed within it is a triple-branched interior guard in the same style, the middle branch extending downward to protrude below the loop-guard. Massive rear quillon, sharply downturned at a right-angle, with a large terminal loop en suite with the pommel. At the back, a looped thumb-ring attached to a small decorative plate springing from the back of a very stout quillon-block of square section. This plate is decorated with four flame-shaped leaves carved ? jour from the plate.
Straight blade of triangular section, the faces hollowed and back ridged. The cutting edge is wrought to an acute point by a gentle curve toward the perfectly straight back. The blade is decorated with delicate engraving; on the obverse a series of geometric 'doodled' forming a base to support an extremely thin classical figure, helmeted, plumed and carrying a walking-stick or yard. Above this is the legend IVNTILIA NUS ROM between scrolls. Above, a pestle and mortar with the words MEFECIT SOLINGEN between similar scrolls. The design is topped by an elaborate floral scrolling motif. On the reverse, a similar geometrical base supports a second figure in classical dress in an airy dancing pose holding aloft a sword in the right hand. Between scrolls, the word PARIS TRO, with a pestle and mortar above, with a second legend ENGEL LOBAG, with the terminal designs of the obverse repeated.
Norman, type 108. Pommel is a variant of pommel type 28. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/terms.htm | Publisher: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Rights holder: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Subjects: | backsword Unknown weapons | Temporal: | name=mid-17th Century; start=1650; end=1660 | Source: | Fitzwilliam Museum | Creator: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Identifier: | http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opacdire... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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