A Steel-Hilted Small-Sword

LATE 17TH CENTURY

Details

A Steel-Hilted Small-Sword
Late 17th Century
With slender tapering blade of flattened hexagonal section and short ricasso, stamped on each side with an oval brass-lined mark enclosing crosses and a rectangular brass-lined stamp 'Lissabon', the hilt with double shell-guard, short rear quillon, slender knuckle-guard interrupted by an oval, globular pommel, and wooden grip bound with silver wire (loose) between copper turk's heads, finely decorated with Classical figures, scrolls, pellets and fruit, all in encrusted silver (some wear), with associated scabbard
29in. (74.2cm.) blade

Lot Essay

Similar sets of brass-lined marks are to be found on the blade of a small-sword with expanding hilt in the Wallace Collection (no. A 693), with the inscription 'Berlin', and on that of another small-sword in the Bernishes Historisches Museum, Bern (no. 517), with the inscription 'Potsdam'. As 'Lissabon' is the German rendering of Lisbon, the blade of the present sword was almost certainly made by a German bladesmith working in Lisbon.

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