Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Matchlock
I am sure that this kind of tessak (German/Austrian Dusägge) is no longer of the 2nd half of the 16th century when most of those were made in Styria/Austria. The pommels then were larger, the blade of somewhat different shape, and as Lee has pointed out, the blade decoration comprising sun, moon and stars - though of late Gothic (15th c.) origin - usually shows up on Baroque blades of the 17th and 18th centuries. The style of engraving on this sample, especially the sword arm emerging from a cloud, are characeristic of German/Solingen blades of the late Thirty Years War, ca. 1640's.
Michael
|
I am convinced that this piece is of Scandinavian provenance, mid-17th c., and belongs together, with no later additions. As I tried to point out, second half 16th c.
Dusäggen were quite different, with larger pagoda shaped pommels and slightly different forms of hilts and saber blades, the latter often punched with a series of eyelash shaped or 'toothed' bows.
They originated from 15th c. Hussite army side weapons with curved blades and were called
TESAK (a Czech term).
Since the 1560's, we know of a very similar type of cavalry as well as foot soldiers' sabers, called
Dusägge or
Säbel auf Teutsch gefasst (German hilted saber) in contemporary Styrian inventories.
Thru large purchases in Germany by Christian IV of Denmark in 1617/18, the Dusägge found its way in considerable numbers to both Denmark and Norway, where it saw homemade production and in
thisack or
tesack, finally recovered its original Czech name as weapon of the Nowegian rural population. The heart shaped open work on the guard is characteristic of the style of the 1640's. For an earlier 1580's dusagge with a different style open work please see images below.
In both Norway and England, it is also colloquially known as
Sinclair sabre. Rumor has it that some Sottish troops had attained many
dusagges, which were taken from them by order of - amongst others - Captain George Sinclair.
For comparison, I attach images of a characteristic late 16th c. Styrian (Austrian)
Dusägge, its iron mounted scabbard missing.
Overall length 105.3 cm
weight 1,340 g
single edged blade, the back grinded for its lower quarter and double edged at the tip, length 90.2 cm, maximum width 3.9 cm
Marks:
Passau running wolf inlaid in coper
unidentifiable maker's mark, perhaps an Italian
barbuta helmet, struck two times in a shield, together with 'S'
a characteristic line of oval 'toothed' bows running down the blade till the back grinding
wooden grip plates, the original cord or iron wire binding missing
the hilt originally blackened.
Best,
Michael