84322 oak sih 4

96

96

Figurę 84. A splendidly preserved X111A from the Burrell Collection, Glasgow.

Figurę 85. A XIIIA with an Arabie inscription. Private Collection

Such cvidencc as we have points clearly to the fact that the 14th-century twahandswerd was just an extra-large Grete Sword of Type XIIIA, not necessarily extra-large either. Consider the two swords shown in Fig. 86. These are in the Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge, where I am at present making a Catalogue Raisonne of the arms and armour collection. Only a few days ago, I was handling these two swords whieh, as you can see, are almost exactly the same size - A is 45.25" overaIl length, while B is 1.25" longer, at46.5" overaIl. Yet, because of the great length of its grip, (9 1/16") it cotild well be said that it is indeed a twahandswerd. Another XIIIA, found in the Thames in London and now in the Museum of London, is a very big weapon almost (not quite though) of the proportions we expect of a two-hander. There is another of these big swords, too, in private hands - this also I was handling a few days ago, at the Park Lane Arms Fair. These are the onlv two swords of this type as big as this, as far as I know. The London one measures 51" (132 cm) overall, with a great blade of 41" (104 cm) overall and a grip of 7.75" (19.5 cm). The other is about 7" longer. However, having said that, I do know of two other swords whose hilts datę respectively to about 1490 in one case, and 1550 in the other, in whieh splendid 14th cen-tury blades of this size (about 40-42 inches) have been reused and mounted in fashionable hilts. The first of these is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and some of you may have seen the second at the Arms Fair. One of these swords is safely unassailable in the world's greatest armoury, but the other, sińce it has what I believe to be a 14th-century blade in near-perfect con-dition remounted in the 16th century, and in private hands, is one of those weapons whieh are subject to the doubts whieh may be cast upon them by the unchallengeable expertise of professionals who's duty, by virtue of their office, is to condemn such seemingly impcc-cable pieces.