Highly decorated medieval (?) french two hand mace

Roland_M · 6th August 2014, 06:43 PM

Hello everybody,
I am a new member of this forum after a long period of passive reading and learning. Now it is time to show my collection to the forum here and this is my first thread.
It is a most probably french two hand mace. I purchased the mace by auction at the delcampe.net website. It was a private seller with no experience and I thought, 99€ is ok, whether authentic or not. The mace is ~64 cm long and weighs impressive 2,35 kg. The handle is deeply engraved with lily flowers, the edge shows very nice bird heads with flames.
The question is, authentic or not? I sended highly compressed pictures to a museum and they said its made from cast steel (no gray iron). Cast steel was patentet in 1860.
In this case the mace is a piece of historism or a modern fake.
Now I have better pictures and the handle shows clear signs of lamination. I believe this mace cannot be made from cast steel, because the geometry have too many undercuts.
Next indicator is that it is a very complex work. It must have taken weeks or months to make this mace, to much time for modern times. The mace once was decorated with gold and maybe more, but over the centuries (?) almost everything is gone.

I would be very pleased about any opinions on this remarkable mace.

Best regards Roland

6th August 2014, 06:43 PM	#1
Roland_M Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Germany Posts: 523	Highly decorated medieval (?) french two hand mace Hello everybody, I am a new member of this forum after a long period of passive reading and learning. Now it is time to show my collection to the forum here and this is my first thread. It is a most probably french two hand mace. I purchased the mace by auction at the delcampe.net website. It was a private seller with no experience and I thought, 99€ is ok, whether authentic or not. The mace is ~64 cm long and weighs impressive 2,35 kg. The handle is deeply engraved with lily flowers, the edge shows very nice bird heads with flames. The question is, authentic or not? I sended highly compressed pictures to a museum and they said its made from cast steel (no gray iron). Cast steel was patentet in 1860. In this case the mace is a piece of historism or a modern fake. Now I have better pictures and the handle shows clear signs of lamination. I believe this mace cannot be made from cast steel, because the geometry have too many undercuts. Next indicator is that it is a very complex work. It must have taken weeks or months to make this mace, to much time for modern times. The mace once was decorated with gold and maybe more, but over the centuries (?) almost everything is gone. I would be very pleased about any opinions on this remarkable mace. Best regards Roland Attached Images