Bardiche (Pole Axe) (1500s): Art, History and Details

Bardiche (Pole Axe) (1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A bardiche is a type of polearm that was used from the 1300s to the 1600s in Europe. Although similar to a halberd it does not have the hook. The shape of the blade can vary but the defining feature is that one end is fastened to the wooden shaft.

Object facts

• Title: Bardiche (Pole Axe)
• Date: 1500s
• Culture: Germany or Russia, 16th century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, leather, brass; wood haft
• Dimensions: Overall: 178.5 cm (70 1/4 in.); Blade: 14.2 cm (5 9/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1563

A detail from the museum

Hung high on the wall of the Armor Court, this weapon of war, standing almost six feet tall, was sure to intimidate any approaching soldier.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], 1900.
• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Helen Ives Gilchrist. Handbook of the Severance Collection of Arms and Armor. 2d ed., 1948.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.