the lost oakeshott sword
almost every student of the medieval sword knows this sword, but I think nobody ever saw a picture of it.
So here is the "primeur".
It is the sword that made a big impression on the former art student Ewart Oakeshott, long before he made his classification of the medieval sword, who made a truthful sketch of it and saved it for at least 65 years. This was in 1935 when the sword was auctioned at Sothebys.
Oakeshott has later published his sketch in several books and articles for its enormous size and rarity.
first in records of the medieval sword as a type XIII.4 and later in an article, fire or triumph in Gun Report Magazine / sword in hand, and article about an unusually large size sword, as the correct type XIIIb.
(swords of this size should really deserve their own classification)
In his life studying the medieval sword Ewart Oakeshott encountered only 3 other swords of this heroic dimension, only two which are of the Same date as the above discussed.(the third is a later 1325 Type XIV in the Metropolitan Museum in NY.
The first is a well known Enormous sword in the Musee de l'Armee, the second one is a less known huge type XIA, in a private collection, the Pontirolo sword. The third is a 200 year later type XIV in the metropolitan dated (1325).
The sword has 2 very old nails hammered through the blade just under the cross, so after its working life it has hung somewhere as a symbol, maybe in a church.
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