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Old 8th August 2012, 07:02 PM   #12
M ELEY
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: NC, U.S.A.
Posts: 2,141
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Nice pics of both swords. Gene, I like this Dutch hanger very much, especially the lion motifs carved into the ivory hilt. Back to Fernando's sword. Having seen the blade, which is also a classic hanger pattern, I stick by my original opinion of American, possibly made in New Spain for the market. Hartzler's book really is a valuable source, with multiple pics of eagle-hilts from the original Medicus collection plus many 'one-offs' like this one. Most colonial Spanish swords didn't have hanger-type blades, but more of the straight espada types. The few I've seen with curved blades were either massively long, or of a more crude construction. Not so sure about those marks-
It should be noted that the two most common types of weapons with eagle-type hilts in this time period were American and/or New Spain/Mexican.
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