Estoc (early 1500s): Art, History and Details

Estoc (early 1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The French word estoc means "thrust" and therefore was adopted as the name for this long thrusting sword. It has a fairly long grip and simple cross-shaped hilt. The rigid blade, designed for thrusting at armored opponents, is three-sided for strength. The estoc was sometimes carried from the saddle. From the early 1300s, it was used by cavalrymen as an auxiliary side arm when a horseman had dismounted.

Object facts

• Title: Estoc
• Date: early 1500s
• Culture: Germany, early 16th Century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, wood and leather
• Dimensions: Overall: 156.6 cm (61 5/8 in.); Blade: 125.3 cm (49 5/16 in.); Quillions: 26.2 cm (10 5/16 in.); Grip: 30 cm (11 13/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.686

A detail from the museum

Swords like this one were developed to counteract and pierce the increasingly heavy armor and sophisticated plates that nearly covered a knight.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. Vol. 1, 14th & 15th centuries. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], [1900-1915].
• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. "Swords from the Severance Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 10, no. 1 (1923).
• 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.

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.