German Horsemans axe of 16th century?

[Philip]

Originally Posted by kronckew

Interesting pry bar finial, presumably for prying open a gap to skewer an opponent inside their armour.

Looks a lot bigger than the subject Texas tomahawk. Looks like it has a rather nasty crack in it too.

I wonder how that guy breathes in that fancy suit. Reminds me of a Victorian whalebone corset.


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Would help to have some identification of the painting, artist, date. To rule out it being, say, a Victorian-era historicism.

That implement the guy is carrying reminds me of a slightly fancier version of a box hatchet, complete with the pry/nail puller finial, in the catalog of a tool distributor who imports them from India.

Haha, breathing in that outfit ... maybe, like ladies in the antebellum South, they carried vials of smelling salts to revive themselves after frequent swooning due to lack of air!

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Philip

... Haha, breathing in that outfit ... maybe, like ladies in the antebellum South, they carried vials of smelling salts to revive themselves after frequent swooning due to lack of air!

[Gonzoadler]

How I still wrote boarding axes are more or less similar to the showed piece, too. Here is an interesting side about boarding axes: https://www.boardingaxe.com/
Under "AXES by NATION" you can see many different models.

Regards
Robin

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by Gonzoadler

How I still wrote boarding axes are more or less similar to the showed piece, too. Here is an interesting side about boarding axes: https://www.boardingaxe.com/
Under "AXES by NATION" you can see many different models.

Regards
Robin

Mostly LESS similar, at best only vaguely similar.

None of which remotely look like the one originally posted -except the fire axe i'd mentioned earlier. Even the 'halberd' axes were not similar. Except for one with a similarly short spike which was described as 'useless' as a weapon.

Dimensions would be more revealing. And so would a decent photo of that inscription.

[David R]

The axe looks legit to me, just new to us on the forum. I would say worst case is a 19th century presentation or decorative axe, and best case Eastern European battle axe of the 17th C or earlier.

Regarding armour, the stuff was made to fit, weighed less than a current grunts full kit, and most of the weight borne by the horse. Here is me in my old harness, it gets hot as hell and you sweat like a pig,but no worse than that it is for the guys in Iraq.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by David R

you sweat like a pig,.

Horses sweat like we do, but not pigs. That's why they need to immerse themselves or wallow in puddles to cool off.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Philip

Horses sweat like we do, but not pigs. That's why they need to immerse themselves or wallow in puddles to cool off.

... Which makes us think they like to rollabout in dirt puddles ... for the fun of it .

[NeilUK]

With ref. to post 16, the painting is a portrait of a knight of the Rehlinger family, done in 1540 by Master LS and now residing in Berlin. Following that how about this portrait of the Marquess of Brandenburg in 1520, complete with battle axe!
Neil