An Extremely Rare North Italian Arquebusier's Auxiliary Armament Saber, ca. 1510-15

[Matchlock]

Excellent point, broadaxe, thank you so much!

Best,
Michael

[broadaxe]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

Excellent point, broadaxe, thank you so much!

Best,
Michael

Thank you, it seems your chest of wanders never runs out of surprizes!

Another thing, the thumb ring was very popular during the 17th century, though is known to be ealier. The guard composition looks of the 16th century fashion. You may have one of the earliest thumb ring weapons in existance.

[Matchlock]

Hi broadaxe,

I think your remark on the thumb guard is just on the point!

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Please see:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10867

[Samik]

Nice piece Michael

As has broadaxe cleverly pointed out the hilt and more elaborate guard shows more central european origin than oriental / central asian.
Thus I would kindly disagree (if I may ) on terming the weapon a "sabre". It is true that such pieces are sometimes hard to label by precise definition and often fall into several categories , yet I would like to bring up one point.

The most prominent feature of a "sabre-proper" (for lack of a better term) seems to be its canted hilt (at the very end , usually accompanied by a small pommel) and , not so much the curved blade (overall it gives you a kind of a "S" profile ; mind you there are various breeds of single edged and curved bladed swords , messers and falchions that arent really a product of central asian influences).

For comparison look at the hilt on the original weapon posted by Michael/Matchlock and compare it with these:

sword of sultan mehmed :



Note the canted hilt at the end.. also the curvature on the blade isnt so much dramatic , but the overall "S" profile can be visible

To give some other examples of typical sabre hilts here is a
Classical Hungarian 17th century sabre (again the way how the hilt ends is interesting):



15th century "Schiavonesca" saber :



Note that despite having a sword-like hilt it is indeed canted at the end and again forms a sort of a overall S-profile.


A closeup on the messer that belonged to Kaiser Maximmilian I :



One can spot the "knife like" ending , with the grip being straight, which is different to that of central asian influenced sabres. Going further some messers actually have quite a curve on their blade (albeit without the yelmen , another "saberish" feature which is missing on Michaels piece). Of course there are examples that are a bit of "wild cards" and have both sabre as well as "genuine european messer" features ,but they seem to be quite rare.

For those aforementioned reasons I would somewhat hestiate calling it a sabre. Not here to spark any heated debate , but I am geninuely interested whats your take on the issue.

Regards,
Samuel

[cornelistromp]

Hello Samuel and Michael,

interesting discussion

the Sabre (Russian Sabla, polish szabla, Magyar's szablya) probably has been imported from the south of Russia to Europe also parallel there were obviously influences from the orient.(re;Attila's sword 850-950 Weltliche schatzkammer Vienna.)
the definition of the sabre is; a sidearm with a long curved blade and a asymmetric grip often bent towards the forward quillon, which has no pommel as a sword but can have a pommel cap instead. (Heribert Seitz Blankwaffen 1
p 183).

if we use this definition on Michaels sword/sabre, it is not a sabre because of it's straight grip and hilt.
Seitz also mentions that in the 16 Century the sword makers in Graz and Passau hat the expression DEUTSCHGEFASSTE SAEBEL/ GERMAN HILTED SABRE for a type of sword with curved blade and hilts with pommel. Also the swiss Sabre is part of this group.
this statement makes Michaels sword, belonging to this group, a sabre

regards from Holland

[Samik]

Originally Posted by cornelistromp

Seits also mentions that in the 16 Century the sword makers in Graz and Passau hat the expression DEUTSCHGEFASSTE SAEBEL/ GERMAN HILTED SABRE for a type of sword with curved blade and hilts with pommel. Also the swiss Sabre is part of this group.
this statement makes Michaels sword, belonging to this group, a sabre

regards from Holland

Thank you very much for the clarification cornelistromp. Guess I have to settle for a sabre then

Cheers,
Samuel