while studying various katzbalgers in museums and private collections , I found that this interesting weapon was subject to fashion of the time.
I will not list all features here, only those features that are relevant to the dating of the excavated Katzbalger in # 1 .
early katzbalgers often have a twisted eight shaped guard , round in cross section , and when there are mythical creatures chiselled in the guard are these larger and recognizably realistic in appearance , 1 mythical creature per guardarm, 2 per sword . see the Example A datable around 1525.
in later often developed Katzbalger hilts around the mid of the 16tthc , the twisted guard gradually disappears and is replaced by a guard which is triangular or rhomboid in cross section , the mythical creatures have become very stylistical and less recognizable and there are often 2 animalheads per arm , so 4 per sword .
if you look at the guard of Katzbalger of post1 , see picture B , you can see that this guard is of a later type; triangular in cross-section with four stylistically carved mythical creatures .
A fully developed Katzbalger in my collection ,picture C datable around 1550, has a guard which is quite similar in terms of style .
A guard triangular in cross-section and with 4 similar stylistic mythical creatures chiselled in the guard.
the Katzbalger of #1 is found at the main gate/old entrance of Eindhoven.
Three events can be mentioned in which the katzbalger may have ended in the canal in front of the city entrance.
1. In 1528, a major blow against the Gelderlanders was delivered at Eindhoven , they were being driven back.
2. In 1543 Maarten van Rossum took the city of Eindhoven with an Army of 15000 men, plundered it and took the castle Cranendonck.
3. in the early 16thC most cities in the Netherlands had restrictive municipal ordinances, it was not possible to get into the city with swords and daggers above a certain blade length.
at cannels in front of old city gates swords and daggers can still be found, they were likely thrown in by the city guard after inspection.
So many ballock daggers and some swords have been recently found in the cannels of Haarlem that treasure hunting is now prohibited there.
it's hard to tell where the Katzbalger has been made.
because Katzbalger with comb pommel is found primarily in the Netherlands, an assumption that it is a Dutch weapon with probably a german imported blade, is to justify
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