SECOND HALF OF THE 15TH CENTURY

Details

A Very Rare Low Countries Or German Gothic Horseman's Hammer Head
Second half of the 15th Century
Comprising iron peen with rectangular face formed as the top of a castellated tower, and iron beak-like fluke of stiff diamond section, each projecting from the mouths of two addorsed latten monsters' heads, surmounted by a lion couchant and cast in one with the slightly tapering tubular socket with file-roped moulding at the bottom, a shield bearing a lion rampant in relief at the top, and an engraved encircling spiral band inscribed in Gothic minuscules 'Ave Maria Gracia Plena Helf Maria', and flat riveted iron belt hook, on later turned wooden haft
6½in. (16.5cm.) head

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This appears to be from the same late-medieval workshop as a rare group of pollaxes, of which five other examples are known, all with heads with comparable latten mounts. It is one of only two horseman's hammers of this construction known, and the only inscribed piece recorded. The verb-form 'Helf' in the inscription indicates a Low Countries or German origin, while the stylistic similarities between the couchant lion and some of the lions supporting latten church-lecterns produced in the Low Countries at the same period suggests that the former is more likely

For a study of pollaxes and of the other hammer of this general type see Alan Borg, 'A Royal Axe?', The Connoisseur, April 1975, pp. 296-301

See also Baron C.A. de Cosson, 'A War-Hammer in the Museo Correr, Venice', The Burlington Magazine, vol. XLII, April 1923, pp. 188-191

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