"Langes Messer" (infantry saber)
Culture
German
Datelate 1400s–early 1500s
Mediumiron and steel
Dimensions107.6 × 88.9 cm (42 3/8 × 35 in.), 2 lb (weight)
ClassificationsArms and Armor
Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection
Object number2014.451
DescriptionSingle edged, curved blade, in the "forte" with two rows of niello-filled addorsed crescents on bottom 1/3, adjacent to hilt. Fuller adjacent to the back edge. Simple cruciform hilt with straight guards of round cross-section, and a curved, short hand-guard (Wehrnagel) on the obverse face. Tang is flat and wide, pierced with 4 holes to secure now-lost plaques to both faces; these holes retain traces of cylindrical rolls of iron passing through them. An additional hole served to secure lost pommel-cap.
ProvenanceCarl Claes (Mulhausen, Thuer, Germany) Henry G. Walters (Baltimore, MD) Purchased by Museum on January 12, 1934 from the American Art Association, Anderson Galleries (NYC), lot #410 in the Walters Sale, #4075. Price paid, $17.50, included HAM#s 2036.1-3. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.
On View
Not on viewCollections
Southern German
about 1550
Michel Witz the Younger
1530s
about 1600–1650
