An English Mortuary Sword of Early Form dating to the second quarter of the 17th century

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Price: £3,600

Ref: 42071890

Item Description

A fine English “Mortuary” hilted sword dating to the second quarter of the of the 17th century and the English Civil War period. The spacious hilt is of boatshell type uniquely and boldly chiselled and engraved with monsters and busts in the English manner. The hilt has a wristguard, a knucklebow to the front and guard bars on each side. The secondary scrolled guard bars present on later Mortuary hilts had not yet evolved at the time this sword was made indicating that it is of early type probably dating to the time just after Mortuary swords evolved from the “Proto” Mortuary types. It is mounted with a robust double edged blade.

The hilt is of typical form consisting of a broad boat-shaped guard plate  from which the three main curved flattened guard bars taper upwards ending with flattened angled terminals screwed into the pommel. The base of each side guard bar is strengthened with a fishtail terminal which joins the bars to the dish. The downwardly curled wrist guard strengthens the rear edge of the plate. The sword is notable because of its robust build, fine condition and the higher than average quality and depth of the chiselled decoration.

The convex surface of the guard plate is chiselled with three finely executed busts of men with wigs and mustaches which may represent King Charles I. Each bust is surrounded by two scaly sea monsters within floral bordered panels.  The heavy solid pommel is of slightly flattened globular shape with an integral button on top and a flared neck beneath. It  is chiselled in the same style as the hilt with busts on each side surrounded by monsters which demonstrates the homogeneity of the parts.

The grip is an impressive piece of work. It consists of a fluted wooden core horizontally wrapped with twisted brass wire depressed into the six flutes. Vertical lengths of twisted wire are applied to the flutes and Turks Heads are present at the top and bottom of the grip. The base of the grip sits on an iron flanged plug mounted onto the inside of the guard plate from which two langets extend through the tang aperture to flank the blade either side for a short distance below the hilt.

The double-edged blade is of flattened hexagonal section and tapers gently to its tip. It has a stylised orb and cross armourers mark on both sides with crosses and geometric shapes below. The blade was probably made in Solingen in Germany from where huge numbers of blades were imported into Britain during the Civil War period to fulfil demand for swords on both Royalist and Parliamentarian sides.  The blade is 32 inches long (81.25 cm) and overall the sword measures 38.5 inches (98 cm) long.

Stuart C Mowbray in “British Military Swords”, Mowbray Publishing, 2013, dedicates a section to Mortuary Swords in pages 178 to 225, as does Cyril Mazansky, in “British Basket Hilted Swords”, Boydell Press 2005, Chapter 11, pages 233 to 280.