Expanding Sword

Culture European

Datelate 1800s

Mediumsteel, leather, brass

Dimensions138.4 cm (54 1/2 in.), 4 lb 6 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.691

DescriptionSteel. Double edged blade of flat lozenge section, with the edges tapering gently to point. Upper half below hilt is encased in a steel sleeve that is slotted on both faces, with a spring catch below hilt in order to permit blade to slide within sleeve and increase the sword's effective length. Grip also expands when sword is lengthened.

Symmetrical blackened iron hilt with straight crossguards, arms of the hilt, and angled, open side rings. Each of these is fitted with pierced, butterfly-shaped projections shaped like the terminals of guard & pommel itself. Leather-covered wooden grip tapering toward pommel, and coarsely wrapped with brass wire.
Label TextTechnical ingenuity has always been an important feature of swordmaking. Aristocrats in Renaissance Europe assembled "cabinets of curiosities" that often included ingenious weapons whose shapes transformed at the press of a button. With the emergence of a lively market for "historic" arms and armor in the industrializing West of the 1800s, such curiosity weapons became highly collectible, and many were manufactured by modern craftsmen to satisfy the burgeoning demand. This sword has a catch-release that allows the blade and grip to be extended into a two-handed sword. Similar weapons can be found in collections in Chicago, Zurich, and Austria: all are likely to have been made in the 1800s.ProvenanceEx-collection of Ressman (Dresden) [ie Costantino Ressman, 1832-1899] Collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art (#14.25.962) Purchased by the Museum from Parke-Bernet Galleries (NYC) on November 15, 1956, sale #1708, lot #134. Paid $80 for lot. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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