Austrian Felddegen / campaign sword
 

Dear all,

I recently acquired this felddegen. The hilt is of classical shape. The engravings on the blade show floral decoration as well as a turkish head on each side which can be linked to the great Turkish Wars.
The sword comes from the castle of Pux in Austria. It was rebuild in 1909. The original castle burned off in christmas eve 1779. Interestingly the wooden grip is charred, which could mean that it already was located in the old castle.

Total length: 95,5cm, blade: 81cm, blade width 3,6cm

I've always liked these. Simple, no-nonsense, pragmatic. A soldier's tool that serves its function without overwrought embellishments. The provenance you provided is especially appreciated. Thank you for sharing.

That hilt is identical to one in the Auckland War Memorial museum that is mounted on a blade with a Martino Antonio kings Head mark.

Thanks for your comments gentlemen.

@toaster: yes, the hilt is indeed very similiar. Do you have information "Martino Antonio"? I am asking, as I wonder how those pieces can be dated. I always linked this metal spacer (please see mark on attached image) between grip and blade with late swords from 1700 / 1st quarter 18th c.

I found some examples of swords with blades similar to mine. The one described here (https://www.biddr.com/auctions/fisch...e?a=34&l=26488) has similar floral decoration and is described to show a Turk´s head as well. The blade is signed with "JOHANNES WIRSBERGER". In his book "Blankwaffen" (1982), Hans-Ulrich Haedeke shows a similiar blade shape also showing the cartouche "Johannes Wirsberger". He dates it to the 2nd quarter 17th c. Another one is the clab-claw-sword, showing a sign of a "Johann Tesche am Weyersberg, 1635" (please see attached scans). There is also an "IAN TESCHE WIRSBERG". I can imagine that it is all the same person.

As the "Wirsberg"-blades have the same shape and similar floral decoration as well as (in one case) a Turk´s head, I wonder if this sword can be date into the 2nd quarter of the 17th c rather than the last quarter or beginning of 18th c. But how does the turk´s head fits in that time, as they were more common during and after the great Turkish wars (1683-1699). Or am I wrong and the heads where already common earlier or are the blades later?

Kind regards
Andreas

Your question called to mind a recent publication of an ancient artifact that has been restored that suggests the 'Turks Head' design has existed for a long time. I'm not sure when it was first applied to weapons, but I suspect long before someone thought to label them ”Turks Heads".
To avoid hijacking this thread, I have posted a photo of the artifact in questions here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...463#post268463

Sorry Andreas but the museum has no information on the provenance of their sword. In fact until I corrected them they had it labelled as a rapier!

Basically any swords older than 200 years in NZ were brought into the country by a collector and then dumped on the museum by their descendants when no one wanted it. Our ability to improve their knowledge is one of the reasons the museum is so happy to allow the Auckland swords & shields society access to the collection, but it does highlight just how dreadful their knowledge base is.

Robert

That´s an interesting object! Thanks for sharing. But I think in this context it is a misunderstanding: The Turk Heads I was writing about are the ones engraved in the blade, not the wire work :)

Ah! Quite right!
My mistake :)