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German, late XVth century

Collection: Baron de Cosson

German, late XVth or early XVIth century

No. 33, Wallace Collection

the blade of this sword, but unfortunately they cannot be seen in the illustration. These figures bear, however, no reference to the year 1415, but merely prove that the hilt was rebladed early in the XVIIth century by the Austrian bladesmith Steyen. It was his common practice to engrave either this group of figures or "1414" or even "1515" in combination with the running wolf mark upon blades of his make in order that his work might not be mistaken for that of the city of Passau, which had already adopted the running wolf mark as its stamp. In the National Bavarian Museum of Munich are some remarkable bastard swords, very Gothic in their general sentiment, but mostly of late XVth century date. We illustrate six of them. The first (Fig. 637A) shows the flattened pear-shaped pommel and plain drooping quillons. Unscrupulous foreign dealers have palmed off on armour collectors hundreds of copies of this type; and this particular sword is probably the original which served as the model of the forgeries. The moulded grip is of cuir bouilli, extending over the centre of the quillons, almost in an inverted cup form, and fitting over the top of the scabbard; a grip formation popular in the latter part of the