Polish Hussar Lance/Spear examples?

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

There is the possibility this is a boar hunting spear, which often have 'wings' to prevent the prey from coming up the shaft, though these elongated side 'blades' seem contrary to the extended wings typically seen.

Jim, your suggestion is food for thought but this weapon does not fit the functional criteria exhibited by every boar spear that I have seen in person or in the literature. The head on this example is much less substantial than the norm, keeping in mind that a boar spear is designed to deal with a thick-skinned animal with a low center of gravity, consisting of several hundred pounds of muscle and bad temper that power a set of tusks that will disembowel any man, horse, or dog that gets close enough. The long blades on either side of the shaft don't do much good because the spear head, properly designed, is what does the job. The wool tassels are superfluous. A simple cross-piece (either forged integral with the socket as common in southern Europe, or a piece of antler or iron lashed or riveted to the shaft below the head in the German lands) suffices as a limit to excessive penetration.

Here are two "classic" examples of boar spear of a style common to the German-speaking countries, with antler-tip crosspieces lashed on with rawhide. The leaf-shaped blade on the left is a variation encountered in other northern and eastern European countries as well.