The Historisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland, possesses an impressive number of various types of foot combat/poleaxes which were illustrated, with their measurements published by Rudof Wegeli: Inventar der Waffensammlung des Bernischen historischen Museums in Bern, Vol. III: Stangenwaffen (polearms), 1939.
Wegeli started out with two early blades, 10th-12th c., 21.3x16 cm and 16x8.7 cm, and another of 15th c. date, 17x10.5 cm (b/w attachments), before introducing the type of Swiss poleaxe called Mordaxt (murder axe), hafted in ash, branded with the initials ZB for Zeughaus (armory) Bern, and with a short vertical spike on the top.
The first hafted axe attached is 2nd half 16th c., no. 1127 in the group scan, the four-sided pole of ash wood. Two long lateral iron straps are attached to the narrow sides of both the haft and blade; one is riveted to the spike, the other bears a horizontal reinforcement. The blade is struck with the Bern city mark, a bear, and a maker's mark, a cross with four pellets, just as on the axe formerly in my collection.
Overall length 151.6 cm, weight 2.260 kg, the blade 20.5 x 12.2 cm, the spike 7.5 cm long.
An axe from that very same series, the blade struck with identical marks, the haft also branded ZB, 153 cm overall, failed to sell at Galerie Fischer's, Lucerne, on 26 May 1988, lot 9012 (see color attachment).
Have fun.
Best,
Michael
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