BY GOTTFRIED LEYGEBE, CIRCA 1660
Details
A Fine German Chiselled Steel Sword-Guard
By Gottfried Leygebe, circa 1660
From a 'transitional' small-sword, made in two pieces, and comprising short vertically recurved quillons formed as lions' forequarters linked by a dragon-like monster attacking one of them, and a side-shell formed as a three-dimensional group of a lion and winged dragon in combat
4¾in. (11cm.)
In style and workmanship this closely resembles the guard of the only signed hilt by Leygebe, in the Victoria & Albert Museum (M59-1947). It should be noted that the famous chiselled steel statuette of Charles II as St. George of 1662 in the Historisches Museum, Dresden, is similarly made in more than one piece
Gottfried Leygebe was born in 1630 at Freystadt in Silesia. After working in Nuremberg he was in 1668 appointed Medallist, Coiner and Sculptor to the Elector of Brandenburg. He died in Berlin in 1668
See A. Bruhn, Der Schwertfeger Gottfried Leygebe, 1945; J.F. Hayward, Swords & Daggers, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1963, plate 19; A.V.B. Norman, The Rapier & Small-Sword, 1460-1820, pp. 327-8
By Gottfried Leygebe, circa 1660
From a 'transitional' small-sword, made in two pieces, and comprising short vertically recurved quillons formed as lions' forequarters linked by a dragon-like monster attacking one of them, and a side-shell formed as a three-dimensional group of a lion and winged dragon in combat
4¾in. (11cm.)
In style and workmanship this closely resembles the guard of the only signed hilt by Leygebe, in the Victoria & Albert Museum (M59-1947). It should be noted that the famous chiselled steel statuette of Charles II as St. George of 1662 in the Historisches Museum, Dresden, is similarly made in more than one piece
Gottfried Leygebe was born in 1630 at Freystadt in Silesia. After working in Nuremberg he was in 1668 appointed Medallist, Coiner and Sculptor to the Elector of Brandenburg. He died in Berlin in 1668
See A. Bruhn, Der Schwertfeger Gottfried Leygebe, 1945; J.F. Hayward, Swords & Daggers, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1963, plate 19; A.V.B. Norman, The Rapier & Small-Sword, 1460-1820, pp. 327-8