Victorian sword-rapier
length: 40 1/2"
This is an unbelievably sweet rapier, it's immediately earned a slot in my
Top Ten Favorite Swords for Training and Usage list. The blade is ultra
light-weight, springy, flexible, balanced exactly at the ricasso/blade junction 1" above the
guard, and this sucker just FLOATS when handled. Grip and pommel are tight,
the guard's a bit loose but I'll be fixing that soon.
Okay, rant over. Can anyone identify this sword by time and location and manufacturer
for me, or recommend some good books for further research? Of course, if you
want to tell be I lucked out bigtime and am now the owner of an authentic
piece from the late 1500's or early 1600's, that would be way cool too.
Oh - BTW - I didn't have my lighting and camera settings pegged when I took
the above pictures - the rapier is overall good ol' steel gray, not brownish.
note received 3/5/01 from David Biggs:
note received 3/6/01 from William Wilson:
note received 3/6/01 from Bryan Maloney:
note from Aaron Miedema, 3/6/01:
Thanks much to everyone who's written so far ... I agree with Bryan that
maybe rapier is not quite the correct term, have changed the title to
"sword-rapier" - that term is Victorian, never used in period, but I still
find sword-rapier preferable to the modern (and silly) term "cut and thrust
sword".
blade: 33"
blade width: 1 1/16" @ ricasso
grip: 6 1/2"
guard: 8"
ring guard: 2" x 4"
This was presented to me as a "Victorian" rapier copy and I can accept that
dating, as much as I'd love to dream that I scored an authentic piece at
repro prices. Too damned many sword and rapier books seem to think that the
hilt is the most important part of the weapon to show, and they leave out
pictures of the blade. Sometimes we collector/users find collectors to be
quite annoying in their focus. Whatever .. where was I? Oh, yeah, because
this blade is diamond in cross-section and unfullered, I'm willing to accept
that it's a Victorian repro. What really bugs me is the "Victorian"
appelation that is blindly accepted and used by dealers and collectors
alike. Hey, it's not like the 1800's were all that long ago, aren't there
any records of English, German, Spanish, or Italian armouries or swordsmiths
that were making copies of ancestral weapons? Certainly it's not that hard
to find out, maybe I just haven't hit upon the right book or books or online
resource yet.
"That's a really good looking rapier. (or possibly side-sword, as
Sinclair
might call it) I would personally say that it's victorian mainly because the
decoration on the hilt isn't as crisp as the decorations on most 16th
century rapiers that I've seen with that level of design, but it does match
the level of other victorian rapiers I've handled.
Now - that being said, I'm by NO means an expert and wouldn't be surprised
if it turned out to be 1550s."
"At first look I would say it would be a sword from the time period of
Marozzo. Without looking up the guard in Norman's book can't say for
certain. The other indicator is length of the sword and the width at the
ricasso. The length is in the range for a cutting sword for a person about
5'8" tall and the width is still a little small for a cutter in my
estimation. If the blade is more of a cutting style blade I would
definately say early to mid 16th C."
"First, I am no expert at all, but I think you should turn your search
for
information further afield than "rapier". My reasons are as follows:
I wouldn't call it a rapier, myself (and I'm NOT in the camp of defining a
rapier as "that which cannot cut" and then claiming that rapiers cannot
cut). It looks to me to be more like a shortsword (spada di lato). If
you examine the shape of the blade, you will notice that the edges are
nearly parallel to each other along most of the length. This is not
typical of a rapier but is a good design for a cutting weapon. Rapiers
tended to favor a distal taper along the entire length of the weapon.
Furthermore, the point is a fairly short ogive, less than 10% of the
total length of the blade. Rapier point ogives tend to take up more of
the blade and be a more acute angle.
Next, the ricasso is remarkably short and has no protection. This would
be very unusualy for a weapon gripped in either the Italian or Spanish
fingering. Such a weapon is really made to be held with the hand
"out-thwart" to use Silver's terminology. Excellent for cutting with a
bit of thrusting as needs be--but that's not what rapiers are for.
Unfortunately, I can't help with the dating, but if you were to start
looking further afield than "rapier" in your research, you might come
closer to what it is."
"Well my two cents worth would be to say that it is based off of what you
would probably find skulking around Italy and France from about 1490 to
maybe 1520......"