1907.64.3.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Sword [.1] with steel scabbard [.2]

Long description

Sword [.1] with curved blade, narrow guard and handle covered with fish skin bound with wire. With steel scabbard [.2] with two rings attached. The blade is incised with the letters GR, the coat of arms of the Prince of Wales, and floral patterns, edged with gilt and on a dark background. Incised on the back of the blade is the maker's name '[initials unreadable] Runkel, Solingen'. [El.B 24/08/2007]

Geographical reference

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Germany

Europe > Western Europe > Germany

Cultural groups

English

Person

Maker Unknown of Runkel, Solingen, Germany

Field collector Mr Jones

PRM source Mr Jones

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1907

Date collected

Before 1907

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1907

Materials and processes

Material Steel Metal, Material Fish Skin, Material Metal Wire, Process Forged (Metal), Process Bound, Process Incised, Process Gilded, Process Etched

Dimensions

Length: max 940 mm, Length: max 855 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1907.64.3.1 Accession number: 1907.64.3.2

Research and responses

OED online: Sabre: A cavalry sword having a curved blade specially adapted for cutting. [AP 25/09/2006]

The curved European cavalry sabre, single-edged on the convex side, was ultimately derived from Asiatic sword forms. The etymology of the term sabre itself indicates something of this stylistic ancestry of diffusion; it is derived from the Hungarian szablya, meaning ‘to cut’. The Hungarians and Russians acquired this sword form during the 9th century AD from the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppes, who were participating in largely the same sword culture as the peoples of southern and central Asia (Nickel, 2002: 120). This sword form was brought into Europe by the Eurasian Avars – a nomadic Eurasian peoples originating in the present-day Ukraine, who were forced into Eastern Europe by a Persian expansion in the mid-6th century AD. The sabre’s suitability for mounted use – like the other Asiatic curved swords – emerges from the benefit of an elongated Centre of Percussion in a Drawing Cut – i.e. downwards and backwards, effectively increasing the length of blade encountered by the victim’s body (Burton, 1884: 130-1). The Eastern European acquisition of this technology, and its widespread dissemination into Western Europe, reflects the superior results which such a form produces. It is, however, of more limited use when thrusting, and much debate went on among swordsmiths and cavalry troops throughout the 17th and 18th centuries over whether it was better to carry a thrusting or cutting sword in the cavalry charge. Research Conducted for DCF Cutting Edge 2006/2007 [AM].

Solingen is a place in Ruhr, Germany [AP 06/12/2007]

Search terms: Weapon, Sword, Sheath