nadziak/obuszek
 

polish nadziak/obuszek? or both? brass faux axe head with knobbed unsharpened blade for impact, bent hook for hooking your opponent off his horse. age ? tia for comments.

iron ferrule & spike on bottom end, steel cap nailed on head.

900 mm - 35,4 inch x 140 mm - 5,5 inch

WEIGHT: 588 g

more info on arrival.

Not a replica ?

doesn't appear to be. some age cracks in the haft, darkened patina where a hand would have rubbed near the spike end, spike & brass collar look old. brass/bronze looks like it's been pitted a bit then cleaned/polished. may have pitting from the casting. coming from Ljubljana, slovenia. will know more when it gets here.

not a high class over-decorated one, looks more of a 'villager' shepherd's axe model for the night out on the town touring the local wodka purveyors and defending your honour from the local wolves, 2 & 4 legged. i hear they were outlawed at the height of their popularity because too many people were getting their heads bashed in in brawls where they were employed.

seller described it as an 'unusual walking stick axe'. from what i can find on the internet (& here) they vary from plain to ornate & everything in between and can have rather odd heads. another take on the fokos, ciupaga, velaska, obush, etc. of eastern europe.

the other side:

here's an 17c-18c polish obuszek that sold for a couple of k. looks related. and a slightly pitted brass 18c one that sold for a tad less.(both not mine :))

Hungarian fokos, mid-20th century made for symbolic use, traditional dances, presentation etc. Legit piece, NOT a tourist market c**p.
BTW, both two examples above are not Polish either, the left one is also Hungarian, and the right one is Turkish-Ottoman.

thanks for the info, broadaxe.

Hi the end/lower piece with brass cap and steel spike is indigenous to that of a walking stick especially in winter. Nice find :-)

Greetings from Ljubljana, Slovenia.

I'm pretty sure that this is a miners/hunters/fireman/postal or similar organisation parade axe, around 1850. Fairly common in Austro Hungaric associations.

no wonder i was attracted to it. i wonder if the cast design (logo?) on the blade is symbolic of one of those groups.

my maternal granny was austro-hungarian, so it's nice to have stuff from there. :) originally from the vienna area her dad moved to the AH part of galetia, she left for the states in the early days of the 20th c. to escape her evil stepmother. still have family in wien and wiener neustadt. many came over from hungary to escape the advancing russians at the end of ww2.

Very possible.
I have a similar fokos, bearing logos of the boy scouts and the world jamboree that was held at Gödöllő (Hungary), 1933.

better pic of the blade part, looks like a rather generic design. same on other side.