Hand-and-a-Half Sword (c.1540–80): Art, History and Details

Hand-and-a-Half Sword (c.1540–80) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A hand-and-a-half sword is a large sword with a double-edged blade and a long grip that, when necessary, could accommodate both hands to wield it. The grip of this sword is made of sharkskin and has been fitted around a wooden core. On the blade are two yet to be identified marks.

Object facts

• Title: Hand-and-a-Half Sword
• Date: c.1540–80
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel; wood, leather, sharkskin grip
• Dimensions: Overall: 116.8 cm (46 in.); Blade: 94.8 cm (37 5/16 in.); Quillions: 31 cm (12 3/16 in.); Grip: 21 cm (8 1/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1974.58

A detail from the museum

If you are looking for this in the armor court, look up; this sword is part of one of the panoply or decorative arrangements on the wall.

Collection credit

Gift from the Bascom Little Estate

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1974.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 3 (1975).
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.

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.