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A Very Rare Medieval Knightly Sword Of Oakeshott Type XIII image 1
A Very Rare Medieval Knightly Sword Of Oakeshott Type XIII image 2
Lot 202

A Very Rare Medieval Knightly Sword Of Oakeshott Type XIII
Late 13th/Early 14th Century, Probably Italian

Amended
30 April 2014, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £25,000 inc. premium

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A Very Rare Medieval Knightly Sword Of Oakeshott Type XIII
Late 13th/Early 14th Century, Probably Italian

With broad flat tapering double-edged blade reduced at the point and with shallow fuller extending over nearly half its length on both sides, the fuller on one side incised with a cross potent, and on the other with the Ottoman (St. Irene) arsenal mark at the forte, hilt comprising straight quillons of square section, large octagonal pommel with circular central recess on each face, flat tapering tang flattened over the top of the pommel, and old replacement wooden grips secured by three transverse iron rivets (some pitting overall)
83.5 cm. blade, 110 cm. overall

Footnotes

For a very similar sword with nashk inscription recording its entry into the Arsenal in the frontier city of Alexandria at the time of al-Malik Abu Nasr Shaikh al-Mu'ayyad in the year 818 A.H. (1415 A.D.), see Christie's London, Fine Antique Arms and Armour ..., 20 November 1991, lot 36

See also David Oliver, 'Some European Knightly Swords from the Arsenal of Alexandria', The Sixteenth Park Lane Arms Fair Guide, 1999, pp. 13-24; Clive Thomas, 'A Distinctive Group of Sword from the Arsenal of Alexandria', ibid, 2003; idem, 'The Medieval Swords of Leeds Castle, ibid, 2005, pp. 10-29; and Stuart W. Pyhrr, 'The Ottoman Arsenal in Hagia Eirene: Some Early Photographs and Visitor's Accounts', ibid, 2007, pp. 29-46

Saleroom notices

Provenance: August Dorgerloh (1819-1901) a famous art collector of the time from Gablauken, Eastern Prussia. Following his death he left his collection to the Konigsberg Academy of Art It appears that the Ottoman (St Irene) arsenal mark has been added at a later date

Additional information

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