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BEAUTIFUL GERMAN HUNTING SWORD

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This German hunting sword has lots of gilt finish left on the brass mounts of the hilt and a very clean blade showing deeply etched floral and animal motifs, along with a poem, with etching showing trace of gold, or gold-colored, fill. The hilt is pistol shaped with flat sides swelling toward the pommel, which has a high capstan rivet. The upper portion of the grip on either side is horn, fitted with three brass raised disks with swirling floral motifs. The lower portion has a wide ferrule, decorated on the obverse with leafy band at top and below that a crouching stag with raised head in an oval, on a stippled ground. Below this the straight crossguard picks up the leaf motif, with a central, swirling flower picking up that on the buttons, and the oval langet shows a deer curled up on the ground. The obverse substitutes a dog grabbing a pheasant in place of the stag, and omits the langet.

The grip has a continuous, wide, gilt brass band over the top, pommel, and bottom of the grip. This is engraved on the top and bottom with a floral chain with open floral links formed of three wreaths linked at the top by three links of a more literally rendered chain, with the center link having some floral element and placed around the capstan rivet so that when sheathed  or held point down, the wreaths will appear to be draped over the top of the pommel, with the loose ends of the leafy links hanging down. On the top strap the upper wreath has an oval cartouche at center that shows what appears to be a long-necked pheasant with its head turned back to almost meet the tip of a raised wing. The corresponding point on the underside of the pommel is too rubbed to make out any design, if there was one.

The blade is straight, spearpointed, with long ricasso, and a broad central fuller and a second, very narrow fuller along the back edge until the blade becomes double-edged toward the point. For the first few inches of the fuller, both sides have a similar, deeply etched, abstract foliate and geometric, nested and interlocking swirls. The etching of the ricasso differs. The reverse has a panel, bordered at top and bottom with foliate and abstract scrolls and swirls, featuring two hunting dogs chasing a stag amidst foliate swirls creating the impression of an abstract forest. The obverse has similar motifs top and bottom, but the top of the oval cartouche has a sun, with face, and rays poking downward, over a short German poem about hunting in the early morning- roughly: “when the rays of dawn paint the field and water one hears the sound of the horn and the gun.”

This is an impressive, high-quality sword, probably mid-to-late 18^th century. If you needed proof of European hunting as a sport for the aristocracy, this is it. The blade is a muted silver gray mixed with some thin darker gray, with lots of the gold colored fill still in the deep etching. The hilt has some rubbing on the langet, crossguard and the top and underside of the pommel, but lots of gilt. The blade edge has just a couple of negligible tiny nicks.    [sr]  [ph:L]

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