Turkey Swords - C17th England

[Jim McDougall]

Thanks for the link Teisani, we had some great discussions in those days!

Looking further, "Scottish Weapons & Fortifications" , Ed. David H.Caldwell, 1981, has some key detail, with this image on p.169 (fig. 73) showing a basket hilt from c.1646, but these had been of course in use for some time. In these times the 'basket hilt' was referred to as 'Irish hilt' as in English the 'Gaelic' was the denominator. These types of hilts had been in use in England much earlier and did not become regarded as Scottish until well into the 17th c. as the true Scottish forms developed.

In the attached footnote from Claude Blairs most important paper, "The Early Basket Hilt in Britain" the usage of the term 'Turky' referring to a type of blade is noted in the Francis Markham work of 1622, "Five Decades of Epistles of Warre", it is noted that the Turkie and Bilboe are the best.

Here can be seen the kind of colloquial terms used as the term Bilboe refers to the Port of Bilbao in northern Spain where blades from Toledo and Spanish centers were exported. Even in Shakespeare the term 'bilbo' was used to refer to a 'good blade'.
With the Turky reference, this simply an eponym for curved blade, with the Ottoman or Turkish blades being the most recognizable types in these times.

Note in the footnote, 'semetaries or turky blades'.
This of course would point to the transliterated word 'scimitar' which in the same manner became used for a curved sword. It is generally held that the word was mistranslated in Italian version referring to the Persian shamshir, with the etymology a bit more complex.

it would be interesting to have a discussion of these curious colloquial terms which often evolved into 'collectors terms' such as 'sinclair saber' etc.