Basket hilted swords

[cornelistromp]

Originally Posted by Cathey

Hi Guys,

When it comes to blade marks this sword has a huge variety of them.

Date Circa 1610-40
Overall Length 39 ¾” 111cm
Blade length 34 1/8” 86.7 cm
Blade widest point 1 1/8” 2.8 cm
Hilt widest point 4 ½” 11.6 cm
Inside grip length 3 ¼” 8.2 cm
Marks, etc. running wolf mark, Orb and Cross, Early Anchor mark

Description
English basket hilt sword of early form, approx. 102cm overall length with approx. 86cm straight backsword blade. Wire bound fish skin grip, steel guard of early type with the unusual feature of a loop for a sword knot in the Spherical pommel. The single edged blade with a single broad fuller in inlaid in pattern with the running wolf mark, Orb and Cross, Early Anchor mark and what appears to be a cross and circle near the hilt.

General Remarks
Complex Anchor Mark looks like that of Johannes Stam Circa 1612 Germania

References:
LENKIEWICZ, Zygmunt S. 1000 SWORD MARKS OF EUROPEAN BLADEMAKERS Pp65
MAZANSKY (C.) BRITISH BASKET-HILTED SWORDS: A TYPOLOGY OF BASKET-TYPE SWORD HILTS. Pp67
MOWBRAY, Stuart C BRITISH MILITARY SWORDS VOLUME ONE 1600-1660 The English Civil Wars and the Birth of the British Standing Army Pp122

OAKESHOTT, Ewart EUROPEAN WEAPONS AND ARMOUR
“by the last years of the sixteenth century, these basket hilts had begun to become associated with the Highland Scots and the Irish. This was probably because many of the Highland Chiefs had holdings in Ulster, and in the Irish wars of Queen Elizabeth’s time there were many Highland mercenaries in Ireland. Whatever the reason, these hilts became known as ‘Irish hilts’ in the early years of the seventeenth century.

Cheers Cathey and Rex

Hi Cathey,

beautiful basket hilt mounted with a beautiful German imported rapier blade.
it's nice to see that rapier blades with a blunt ricasso were also used on basket hilts because it is not possible to bend the index finger around the ricasso due to the basket, so the ricasso has no function here.
This diamond shaped rigid blade is ideal for the thrust.

Anchors are often wrongly perceived as a makersmark, however these anchors are purely decorative and placed for example, at the end of a fuller, or in the middle of a diamond shaped blade.
Attribution to Johannes Stam can not be made merely on basis of a similar anchor and without his other marks the typical IS under a crown.
In Albert Weyersberg Solinger schwertschmiede 1926 ,p 27 is a Solingen blade described with an almost identical in copper inlaid Passau wolf and orband cross .see image
this blade is attributed by Weyersberg to Johannes kirschbaum.

best,
Jasper