Lot 11
11
A HUNTING CLEAVER with single-edged blade with narrow fuller along the back on one face, its base sandwiched between two plates shaped to form a bolster involving a short front quillon, and with a small outer side-ring, the iron grip of rounded rectangular section dividing at the top to form two stylised animal's heads, the two wider faces encrusted in silver with scrolling foliage and flowers involving cherub's heads (some losses), and the edges engraved with rosettes separated by pairs of diagonal lines (rust patinated overall), early 17th Century, probably English

Details
A HUNTING CLEAVER with single-edged blade with narrow fuller along the back on one face, its base sandwiched between two plates shaped to form a bolster involving a short front quillon, and with a small outer side-ring, the iron grip of rounded rectangular section dividing at the top to form two stylised animal's heads, the two wider faces encrusted in silver with scrolling foliage and flowers involving cherub's heads (some losses), and the edges engraved with rosettes separated by pairs of diagonal lines (rust patinated overall), early 17th Century, probably English
13¼in.

Lot Essay

For cutting up game, and almost certainly from a hunting set of the kind well known from German examples (see Wallace Collection, A 703). The silver decoration is of a kind that is particularly characteristic of English swords of the early 17th Century. See, for example, J.F. Hayward, 'English Swords 1600-1650', R. Held (ed.), Arms and Armor Annual, I, Northfield, Ill., 1983, pp. 142-61

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