Scottish Basket Hilt by Thomas Gemmill
Hi Guys
Just working through what I have and haven’t posted and realised I had not put my favourite up yet, so here goes.
Scottish Basket Hilt by Thomas Gemmill
Date: Circa 1690-1720 (17-18th Century)
Nationality: Scottish (Glasgow)
Overall Length: 93.5 cm (36.8 inches)
Blade length: 79.7 cm (31.4 inches)
Blade widest point: 4.4 cm (1.7 inches)
Marks, etc: Blade marked "Andria Farara" in the centre.
Description
The Iron hilt has a broad flared wrist guard with fluted decoration. The edges of all the broad and narrow guards are cut with pairs of claws with bifurcated ends. The piercing includes hearts made up of three separate holes, a diamond one shaped to fit between the other two which are round. The central piercing on the broad guards is in the form of an X. The grip is stag horn. All other bars are broad and have deep fluted decoration. This is a full basket. The broad sword blade is marked “"Andria Farara" on both sides.
General Remarks
Provenance: sold by Philip Fialides of Impala Antiques to retired Victorian Superintendent of Police Noel Standfield, Noel then sold the sword on to Murray Gray. Noel had done considerable research on this sword and was the first to claim it is an unsigned Gemmill.
Sword has since been confirmed as an unsigned Thomas Gemmill by the Baron of Earlshall who will be featuring this sword in his book.
Thomas Gemmill (Kings Armourer in Glasgow, c. 1718-1737)
Cheers Cathey and Rex
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