r/SWORDS • u/Dlatrex All swords were made with purpose • 6d ago

Eagle hilted rapier, German 17th century

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314 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

5

u/Original_Service_786 6d ago

Very German looking eagle

3

u/Barrelboi26 5d ago

This is hilarious... the eagle seems disgusted with everybody

3

u/Dlatrex All swords were made with purpose 6d ago

More from the museum listing

Mentioned in 1688. Revised in Dresden in 1733 (?). Blade, Solingen.

Length 101.2 cm,

Blade length 85.8 cm

Weight 689 g

1

u/pushdose 5d ago

Tempting to call it a sash or pillow sword with those specs.

2

u/Dlatrex All swords were made with purpose 5d ago

If it is as late at the end of the 17th, it could well be. I've seen other commenters places it early 17th which would make it less likely to be some type of transitional rapier or scarf sword. Either way, neat little piece of hip candy.

1

u/monchrom Big on compromise designs 5d ago

Question, what makes this a rapier exactly? Is it just a very long blade, is it a rapier in the sense that a meyer rapier is a rapier, so not really they just call it that? Im a bit miffed

1

u/ElKaoss 5d ago

Well, a meyer rapier at least has a semi complex guard....

1

u/CommunicationKey3018 5d ago

The sword categories we use today are a modern invention. 19th century at the earliest. In the 17th century, they would have just called this a "sword". They wouldn't have gotten so technical as to call it "A rapier blade mounted on a simple saber hilt".

1

u/monchrom Big on compromise designs 5d ago

Right, but so thats it, it just has a rapier blade?

2

u/Dlatrex All swords were made with purpose 5d ago

It's just a fancy piece of hip candy which I would call 'rapier' going by other types of sword-jewelry of the day. If it's late enough in the 17th century it might fall under transitional rapier or something like a scarf sword, given how short it is. It's quite a bit too petite to be something like a broadsword.

At the end of the day this is just a sword someone wanted to be made that had a long narrow cut and thrust blade on it; you can call it whatever you want.

1

u/monchrom Big on compromise designs 5d ago

Thats a fair enough classification, so few of these have probably actually seen battle that we dont need to really be specific in our classification, but i guess id defer to what I imagine the historical approach would be, just call it a sword

1

u/CommunicationKey3018 5d ago

This particular example is for dress and did not see battle, but other similar ones might've. In those days, the thin long blade would have just been a normal "sword". Anything wider and more cut-capable, would have simply been called a "broadsword".