XL.german hunting sword , old blade with wheel and gallows

[Akanthus]

In his great book " Hirschfänger -Zur historischen Entwicklung jagdlicher Seitenwaffen " Mr.Herbert H.Westphal shows a 17th.century combination of a hunting sword grip with a executioners blade.Here you also find wheel and gallow.The weapon is peserved in the collection of Schloss Erbach.He mentioned that such a combination is extraordinary because people had stong reservations concerning executioners tools and his profession.In my opinion it possibly was the blade of a judicial sword, which was a symbol of jurisdiction.Same thing,different centuries.

[francantolin]

Waoh ! Great !
Thank you 😀

[francantolin]

Really similar blades ,
I just wonder if ́these two large hirschfanger were made and then engraved as an authoriy status symbol of justice
( ́’ ́mine ́’ rehilted during the 19th century )
Or made with ́real cut down justice sword.
If they were just symbolic, the blades could even be smaller.
Has someone seen these symbols on small models ?

Kind regards

[Akanthus]

Westphal mentioned in his book that in this case they did not use the originally tang.They formed a new tang from the upper strong part of the blade. One of the cutting edges of the forner biconvex blade was removed to create a backblade which is a characteristic feature of German 17.century hunting swords. In result the wheel moves out of the centre of the blade ,witch is smaller now.So the blade is shorter and smaller .In my opinion it us difficult to decide whether the blade had a executive or a legislative history.

[Jim McDougall]

As I had mentioned, the notions of 'executioner swords' were with somewhat reserved character.
It seems with the added example here that the idea of a less dramatic thus more acceptable weapon in the manner of the social and status oriented hanger, hirschfanger but bearing these symbols of authority makes sense.

Clearly this was not a 'one off' practice, yet not well known, so I think important to note here.

With that being the case, the blade need not be an original 'sword of justice' example cut down, but the same type symbols used to denote the same authority intended on the older and heavier swords.

A sword I have with staghorn grip and a rulers cypher and with unusual recurved blade makes me wonder if it may have been in somewhat the same capacity in mid 18th c.