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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
Very interesting, and nice examples.
I am wondering about the 'town watch' distinction used in describing these swords. I am not familiar with that term, and cannot help thinking of Rembrandt's famed painting , the so called "Night Watch". This is apparently a militia company with arquebusiers, and I am wondering if these swords were typically favored by these company's or if the term has other meaning.
Is the asymmetrical hilt peculiar to these, or simply a popular design of the time?
All best regards,
Jim
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Hi Jim,
yes correct.
in the middle ages every civilian had to take part in defending the cities.
In the 13thC came the military use of the bow and arrow. to use the bow and arrow special skills were needed. the people united themselves in "schuttersgilden" to practice with the hand and foot bow. at the end of the 14thC general rules were made and duties and rights were described by the city government. those schuttersgilden were often "used"
by the defending of the Dutch cities because of their shooting skills.
on the other hand they were very difficult to control them.
It was an Honor to be selected as a member of those schuttersgilden and the members were from the upper class and they financed their own expensive weapons. The dutch schutters paintings of Rotius (1650, Alkmaar) show already very "new for that period and progressive " small sword models!!!
after 1580 the gildes were organized after a military model.
Rembrandt's night watch the compagnie of Frans Banning Cocq was painted in 1642. The tasks/power of the schutters was already reduced to control the streets in the evening and nights. Due to frequent misbehaviors of those schutters during the night duty all the tasks were taken from them a bit later.
I understood the German Munich Town guards/watch were formed after a military model and were all provided with the same armour and a Stantler type town watch sword/rapier. Maybe Michael can tell us more about this.
for this sword type see the last auction of
http://www.hermann-historica.com/
lot 3677
best regards