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A Very Fine English 'Mortuary' Hilted Backsword image 1
A Very Fine English 'Mortuary' Hilted Backsword image 2
A Very Fine English 'Mortuary' Hilted Backsword image 3
A Very Fine English 'Mortuary' Hilted Backsword image 4
Lot 81

A Very Fine English 'Mortuary' Hilted Backsword
Mid-17th Century

25 July 2007, 10:30 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £9,000 inc. premium

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A Very Fine English 'Mortuary' Hilted Backsword
Mid-17th Century

With tapering hollow-ground blade double-edged towards the point, short fullered ricasso struck with a bladesmith's mark on each side, iron hilt retaining much of its original japanned and gilt finish and comprising guard elaborately pierced and chiselled in low relief with four portrait medallions representing Charles I, his wife Henrietta and another younger couple, each against a stippled ground within a punched scrolled border and linked to grotesque masks between, drawn-up at the front as a pair of pierced and chiselled sea-monsters linked to the knuckle-guard and side-bars by two scrolled bars on either side chiselled with foliage, the bottom bars terminating in a monster-head, the side-bars and knuckle-guard screwed to the pommel, the former each with central grotesque mask, globular pommel chiselled en suite with the guard, button finial, wire-bound sharkskin-covered grip, buff-leather liner faced with red woollen cloth, and in fine condition
90 cm. blade

Footnotes

This sword appears to have been remounted for use in the 18th Century

Additional information

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