Basket-Hilted Sword

Date1600–1650

Mediumsteel

Dimensions20 × 3 × 112.2 × 99.7 × 10 cm (7 7/8 × 1 3/16 × 44 3/16 × 39 1/4 × 3 15/16 in.), 3 lb, 2 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsMill-rind mark on both faces of ricasso. Armory accession number "3273" in red on reverse of blade ricasso at hilt.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.347

DescriptionEngland or Netherlands (hilt) ca. 1590-1620; Germany (blade) 1st half of 17th century. The steel blade is stiff, diamond section, double edged, with an acute taper to the sharply pointed tip. There is a short, thick ricasso with incised lines bordering the outer edges on both faces, themselves stamped with a “millrind” mark. The shoulders of the blade are cushioned with a modern leather washer, of oval form, with dagged edges.

The hilt consists of elliptical section iron bars, one of which curves to form a knuckle guard, its upper terminal nestling into a recess in the side of the pommel. One arm of the basket is welded to a stout oval plate formed from the quillon-block. The plate is pierced with two addorsed hearts at the dagged side edges, and cut on the outside face with an undulating, voluted-leaf pattern on a punch-dotted ground. This plate is opposed with an open side-ring with thumb-loop.

Incised cross guards are vertically recurved, with expanding tips cut into circular, flat terminals, incised with floral patterns, and finished in necked, rounded tips. There is a single "arm of the hilt" curving down towards the ricasso where it re-curves rearward as a bifurcated inner-guard welded to the side-ring.

The restored grip is of a single piece of wood, wrapped with braided iron wire, with woven "Turk’s heads" above and below. The pommel is mushroom-shaped, slightly oval-sections in the plane of the blade, with a short necked base and without a button above. It is decorated en suite with the hilt.

The hilt was once a full basket, as evidenced by the filed-down terminals of the rear bars on the basal-and upper ends of the knuckle-guard, and at mid-point of the ring-guard. The tip of the downturned crossguard is broken off.
ProvenanceWilliam G. Luke collection (Pelham, NY) purchased by the Museum from Parke-Bernet Galleries (NYC) on November 25, 1953, sale #1473, lot #78. Price paid for lot. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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