LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details

A VERY RARE VENETIAN SILVER-HILTED SCHIAVONA
Late 18th Century
With tapering double-edged blade with central fuller on each face of the forte stamped 'In Mene' separated by saltires, the hilt comprising basket guard of characteristic form with a fan-shaped arrangement of bars supporting a single diagonal ladder-shaped panel, the upper tip terminating in a helmeted head en suite with the tip of the long straight rear quillon, struck twice with the mark of the winged Lion of St. Mark 'in moleca', and once with the assay mark of the Venetian mint used in the second half of the 18th century, 'cat's head' pommel with raised crown-shaped circular boss on each face, and wooden grip bound with silver wire, in its original leather-covered wooden scabbard with silver mounts comprising mouth-locket and chape respectively embossed and cast in relief with a quatrefoil arrangment of foliate scrolls, and a vase of flowers, and two horizontally-reeded intermediate lockets
35¾in. (90.8cm.) blade

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 sword was presumably made for an officer of one of the troops of Schiavoni in the service of the Venetian Republic. Only one example of a silver-hilted schiavona is recorded by Boccia, in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, but another is in the Harding Collection in the Chicago Institute of Art. The Hermitage sword bears the same official Venetian Lion of St. Mark 'in moleca' stamp (showing the head and forequarters only), a different silversmith's mark, and the assay mark of Palmanova (the headquarters of the Schiavoni) dating from after 1774

See L.G. Boccia, 'Les épées des Esclavons: entre Venise et Illyrie', Genava, N.S., XLIII, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, 1995, pp. 123-4; U.Donati, I Marchi dell'Argenteria Italiana, no. 733

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