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An Extremely Rare Sword ('Grosse-Messer' Or 'Kriegsmesser')Austrian, Late 15th Century
Sold for £12,000 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistAn Extremely Rare Sword ('Grosse-Messer' Or 'Kriegsmesser')
Austrian, Late 15th Century
Austrian, Late 15th Century
97 cm. blade
Footnotes
The best-known sword of this type is the one made for the Emperor Maximilian by Hans Sumersperger of Hall in the Tyrol in 1496. Similar swords called Kriegsmesser are depicted being carried by swordsmen in Hans Burgkmair's famous woodcut series The Triumph of Maximilian, published about 1515, No. 38 (see illustration) and seem to have been used by the Imperial guard in Vienna under the Emperors Frederick III and Maximilian I. For more information see O. Gamber, Die Mittelalterlichen Blankwaffen der Wiener Waffensammlung, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen In Wien, vol. 57, 1961, pp. 30-33. For a very similar sword struck with the same mark see Lionello G. Boccia and Eduardo T. Coelho, Armi Bianche Italiane, 1975, No. 134 (illustrated), p. 340
For another example sold in these Rooms see Fine Antique Arms and Armour, 27 November 2003, lot 106








