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Lot 178
A Rare Basket-Hilted BackswordLate 17th/Early 18th Century
30 April 2014, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge£2,000 - £3,000
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A Rare Basket-Hilted Backsword
Late 17th/Early 18th Century
Late 17th/Early 18th Century
With broad tapering hollow-ground blade double-edged towards the point, iron guard (old repairs) of slender flattened bars framing a shaped panel between hooked bars above and below, chiselled with a bearded devil's head in an oval and pierced with three circular holes on either side, an elongated oval aperture for the reins on one side, hooked 'ram's horns' on both sides and each with heart-shaped piercing, fore-guards, and now with a ring around the base for the later bun-shaped pommel, and fishskin-covered grip bound with two strands of twisted brass wire between brass Turk's heads
86.5 cm. blade
86.5 cm. blade
Footnotes
A sword with a very similar hilt is in the Royal Armouries, Leeds (inv. no. IX.828). See Cyril Mazansky, British Basket-Hilted Swords, 2005, p. 146, G5c (illustrated)








