Basket hilted swords

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by E.B. Erickson

Ibrahim,
That's not a statement of mine that you mentioned a few posts up the page, but I don't remember right now who said it! I guess I'll have to head over to MyArmoury and track it down. And anyway, I'm just a collector, and would hardly consider myself a leading light of baskethilt lore.

I am, however, in total agreement with the idea that the various basket types developed independently of each other. This idea was also expressed by Jasper.
One thing that I have been doing the last week or so is developing a visual lineage of the various basket types. I'll post it when I have a rough draft that I'm happy with.

Regarding those baskets with the slotted elements, one turned up in Virginia, apparently from an early colonial site, but unfortunately the site itself and information about it is lost. See the attached photo.

Salaams E.B. Erickson, Please see http://jamesdjulia.com/item/lot-2310...irginia-44160/ where there are 3 weapons discovered of which your illustration is one. The site is an old auction site 2011 therefor the items were probably sold 4 or 5 years back....

My apologies on the quote which I only meant I had applied from the website which had mentioned your name....rather than you having been the originator of the words I showed...

Excellent news that you are working on the lineage document.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[E.B. Erickson]

Ibrahim,
Yes, that old Julia auction is where I found the sword. The other two items weren't surprising to find in an American colonial context, but that Germanic/Dutch basket was! I guess it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise, because England and Europe had a lot of trade going on in the 1600s (when they weren't fighting each other!).

No need to apologize for the confusion about the quotation. Whoever said that is a much better writer than I am, and I just wanted to make sure that I didn't get the credit.

--ElJay