Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

urbanspaceman · 13th February 2021, 01:05 PM

Regarding the cartouche: mother-in-law did suggest "culo casto" as being a bawdy refrain; as I said earlier, her description was "common parlance in colloquial dialect". She obviously left it to her daughter (my ex) to explain its postural pertinence. I have lived with that meaning since, but when I came across that very similar alternative cartouche on a French blade I wondered if there was a common significance to the figure. Cupid definitely fits the bill on mine.
In regard to the business of 'rapier or not' your taxonomy, Shayde, is definitely worthy of an independent thread as you raise so many debateable issues that you should give everyone an opportunity to agree or disagree whenever. Consequently, I won't labour this thread's indulgence further in that regard except to say perhaps the 'schools' might be the ultimate arbiters; as you mention, how it is used is critical and to that end,I have to declare that the sword of mine in question with its 92cm relatively broad blade would take some strength to be used as a smallsword; however, given the size of the hilt, it was obviously commissioned for a hefty hand. Isn't this fun?

13th February 2021, 01:05 PM	#33
urbanspaceman Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Tyneside. North-East England Posts: 515	bottom's up Regarding the cartouche: mother-in-law did suggest "culo casto" as being a bawdy refrain; as I said earlier, her description was "common parlance in colloquial dialect". She obviously left it to her daughter (my ex) to explain its postural pertinence. I have lived with that meaning since, but when I came across that very similar alternative cartouche on a French blade I wondered if there was a common significance to the figure. Cupid definitely fits the bill on mine. In regard to the business of 'rapier or not' your taxonomy, Shayde, is definitely worthy of an independent thread as you raise so many debateable issues that you should give everyone an opportunity to agree or disagree whenever. Consequently, I won't labour this thread's indulgence further in that regard except to say perhaps the 'schools' might be the ultimate arbiters; as you mention, how it is used is critical and to that end,I have to declare that the sword of mine in question with its 92cm relatively broad blade would take some strength to be used as a smallsword; however, given the size of the hilt, it was obviously commissioned for a hefty hand. Isn't this fun?