The Erbach Sword

[Ed]

Schloss Erbach contains a well known armory from which piecs were sold at a number of well known sales early in the past century.

The post card that is reproduced shows the sword on display. At least one of the Graffs was well known for outright swiping of stuff. There is a story of him absconding from the Vatican with an object under his cloak.

I think that the shield that is in front of the sword is also now at the Met. Gotta check on that.

[Ed]

These engravings show a classic 16th century battle scene with a medallion of Marcus Curtius descending into hell.

For completeness I am also showing the medallion from the other side. This shows Gaius Mucius Scaevola putting his hand into the flames. These were two popular and inspiring images at the time and they both appear on the helmet of the royal Saxon guard. The helmet was in the Higgins Armory Collection and kindly made available to me by Kent Russell, curator at the time.