brief notes on a 16th century sword

[cornelistromp]

in 1995 Sotheby’s auctioned one of the largest collections of a German noble house, maybe the largest.
Die Sammlung der Markgrafen und Großherzöge von Baden, 7 catalogues 7400 lots in 22days.
Also this sword was among the lots ,straight out of the armoury of the karlsruhe castle, described in the catalogue as German broadsword early 17thC.
But is it also 17thC ?, if we take a closer look at this sword;
the condition is surprising, hardly wear or damage, and the remains of the fire gilding are still present at the pommel and deeper parts of the hilt.
The blade is shiny and sharp, the sword could be used at any time again.
it has a pommel in the form of a scent stopper, actually a later variation of Oakeshott pommel type T.
The grip is of one and a half hands size, wherein the rear hand covers a portion of the grip and the pommel.
the sword is swift and feels light in hand, it can be used with one hand only.
The hilt has a guard with recurved quillons across the plane of the blade.
Those recurved quillons were common in art in the first quarter of the 16th century.
the blade has no ricasso or start and has a long wide fuller over the entire length with two shorter Fullers on each side.
a geometry that occurred in the 15th and 16th century on north Italian swords but blades like this are also made in Solingen, (actually a similar lower quality version was produced till the mid of the 19th century for export to Africa and India.)
in all aspects this sword tend me more to the beginning of the 16th century then to the early 17th century.

In Art:
A similar sword is depicted in a painting by Joerg brue the Elder, made in 1501, - the crucifixion.

Best,
jasper