Basket-Hilt Broadsword ("Mortuary Sword") (hilt: c. 1640–50; blade: 1700s): Art, History and Details

Basket-Hilt Broadsword ("Mortuary Sword") (hilt: c. 1640–50; blade: 1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The decoration on this sword's hilt includes an image of King Charles I of England (beheaded in 1649). Because the image resembles the king's death mask, this sword is known as a "mortuary sword." It may have belonged to Sir Thomas Fairfax, a general of the Parliamentary cavalry during the English Civil War (1642-51). Large, double-edged broadswords, designed for heavy cavalry use, were common from the 1600s through the 1800s.

Object facts

• Title: Basket-Hilt Broadsword ("Mortuary Sword")
• Date: hilt: c. 1640–50; blade: 1700s
• Culture: Hilt: England; Blade: Germany, Solingen (?), Hilt: 17th Century; Blade: 18th Century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, chiseled; inlaid gilt- silver foil; wood and wire grip
• Dimensions: Overall: 101.6 cm (40 in.); Blade: 85.2 cm (33 9/16 in.); Hilt: 13 cm (5 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.696

A detail from the museum

The ornate basket hilt which protects the hand, is chiseled with leafy decorative scrollwork and grotesque masks.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. Vol. 4, 17th to 19th century and a few pieces of iron work. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], [1900-1915].
• 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.