Parrying Dagger (c. 1580–1610): Art, History and Details

Parrying Dagger (c. 1580–1610) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The perforations within the blade were meant to provide elasticity, preventing it from snapping during vigorous parries. The serrations were arranged not for producing an unpleasant wound, but to "catch" the adversary's blade.

Object facts

• Title: Parrying Dagger
• Date: c. 1580–1610
• Culture: Italy, late 16th - early 17th Century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, copper wire
• Dimensions: Overall: 26.5 cm (10 7/16 in.); Blade: 17.2 cm (6 3/4 in.); Quillions: 8.4 cm (3 5/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1657

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. Vol. 2, 16th century. [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.