Quote:
Originally Posted by Interested Party
To me the angle of the hilt and thumb ring seem reminiscent of Central and Northern European Influence. Were these straighter hilted Karabelas common?
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Unfortunately, this is a type of sabre that I know very little about... but to my eyes it combines traits found in some Tatar? sabres and other East European sabres like the the karabela (and by extension some Ottoman sabres?).
East European and Ottoman traits:
1 the scabbard fittings are reminiscent of some on various sabres of Ottoman origin. See here...of course not identical but you see the resemblance. And definitely not tatar-like fittings.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki...ren_-_8917.tif
2 the cross guard is narrow and again, reminescent of Ottoman and East European sabres of the late 1600s - early 1700.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki...en_-_51965.tif Note: the sabre in this picture is suspected of being one of Constantin Brancoveanu, Wallachian voivode based on the blade inscription
3 the thumb ring is where it departs Ottoman character and gains a Polish?? Maybe Ukrainian?? character.
Tatar traits:
4 the ray skin covering the handle.
5 the narrow, uniform curved, fuller-less, yelman-less blade.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/w/in...en_-_17479.tif
Although the Poles also had something inspired by this
https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szabla_ormiańska
But the szabla ormianska is itself inspired by Tatar sabres.
In short, to me it looks like a heavily Tatar sabre inspired design with Polish features added...but again these are sabres of which I know very little about. One thing I will say is that I don't think calling it a karabela is very helpfull. Karabelas have very distinctive hilts, most of them don't even have a thumb ring...so what's the point of calling it a karabela.