Good Evening, This is my first post and first basket hilted sword which I recent bought, any comments or advice will be gratefully received.
The sword from my limited research I believe dates from around 1600 ?? and is English, with a Solingen blade made by Clemens Deinger which is stamped to both sides of the blade, it appears to have brass or similar decoration remaining in the stamp marks of some letters or symbols, it also has a stamp on the ricasso of a bird in a shield shaped armourers mark, the blade is 36” or 91.5 cm long and 1 1/16” or 2.7 cm at its widest point and of a backsword style, it is still sharp, there are no fullers.
The pommel is a solid spherical shape, there are no decorations on the two shields of the hilt and no apparent makers mark, the grip has its wires intact and in good condition with 3 separate types of wire thickness, there are Turks heads knots top and bottom. There is only one screw holding the hilt to the pommel.
I have noticed that one of Cathey’s many swords post 162 has a blade by Clemens Dinger which also appears to have a number of similarities in the shape of the hilt as mine, the blade is very different being a broadsword with several fullers.
I have a copy of 1000 Marks of European Blademakers and the similarities between the spelling of Clemens Deinger on my blade and Clemens Dinger on Cathey’s blade are striking with the N’s being reversed and both having a bird as there symbol in a shield stamp on the ricasso, is it possible that my blade with Deinger which appears a simpler design is slightly earlier than Cathey’s when for some reason they had dropped the E and developed a finer Swan shaped stamp also seen on the ricasso in addition to the bird shield stamp. Obviously over time trademarks change and newer sharper images could be stamped in addition.
According to Lenkiewicz, Clemens Dinger traded in Solingen between 1590 and 1617 during which period it appears to me that Deinger dropped the E and became Dinger and the swan stamp was developed later ??.
I have tried to obtain a copy of Solinger Schwertschiede des 16 und 17 Jahrhunderts und Ihre Erzeugnisse by Weyersberg from Ken Trotman but he has sold out and will not be reprinting any more so I am unaware of what if anything Weyersberg knows about Clemens Deinger or Dinger of this period, any assistance would be appreciated, Cheers Bob.
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