Hand and a Half Sword

[Philip]

Some examples of the genre to start the discussion. Line drawings show the gamut of hilt styles, from Ewart Oakeshott's European Weapons and Armour, fig 54. The simpler Group I guards are earlier, first third of the 16th cent. Photoplate is of 3 German bastard swords, 16th cent., in the Tower of London Armouries ( A. R. Duffy, European Swords and Daggers in the Tower of London, plate 13 ).