17th Century Italian Mortuary Sword

[Jack Loomes]

Assembled in the 17th C. for an Italian officer in the archaic Roman style. The handle is of a type known in the Real Armeria in Madrid and the blade is a very well made Peter Munich blade with images of Scipio Africanus and Hannibal of Carthage on each side. A beautiful four sided blade of a flattened estoc style. The hande is in very nice original condition with an excellent original patina all throughout the sword. Mortuary swords were generally assembled to be placed in the tomb of specific individuals. This example because of its Roman style hilt and the roman associations on the blade was likely made for an officer who took his inspiration from the Roman period. In the renaissance the revival of Roman and Greek motifs in armor also extended to arms and this sword is a very rare example of that confluence.

Overall length is 40", blade is 34"

For more information on Oakeshott Type XVIII swords see this extract from Ewart Oakeshott's Records of the Medieval Sword: sword-site.com/thread/183/oakeshott-xviii-xviiia-records-medieval

Source: armsandantiques.com/