Boar-sword

Boar-sword, the hilt composed of an octagonal fig-shaped pommel, the top heavily incised with semi-circles, deep oblong aperture in one facet showing faint traces of a figure in low relief leaning upon a shield; long, oval, corded grip, swelling in the centre, and bound with leather; plain, straight guard of oblong section. The blade, of oblong section becoming two-edged and turning to a diamond section halfway to the point, is pierced for a cross-bar as in A699.

German, about 1510.

Viollet-le-Duc, V, pp. 393-4, fig. 22.

Provenance: E. Juste (épée de chasse du XVe Siècle à deux mains, 200 fr.

Reciepted Bill, 14 January, 1867); Comte de Nieuwerkerke.

The contemporary name in English for this type of sword was apparently a 'boar spear sword', according to the post-mortem inventory of Henry VIII (Dillon, Archaeologia, LI, p. 268). The 'decoration' in the depression of the pommel, mentioned in the 1962 Catalogue, is probably imaginary. This kind of depression was probably originally filled with copper or silver bearing a device of some kind, as for instance on the sword believed to be that of Estore Visconti (Blair, Waffen- und Kostümkunde, 1962, pp. 112-20).