Small Sword (1640–60): Art, History and Details

Small Sword (1640–60) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

During the 1700s, the small-sword emerged as a light, quick weapon. Like the rapier it was carried by unarmored civilians, the noblemen of the upper classes. Over time this delicate sword became more an accessory of male attire than a weapon essential to life and death. The sword hilt, which shows even when the blade is sheathed, became the ground for elaborate decoration. These small-swords thus represent the final stage in the evolution of the sword, from the edged weapons of antiquity to the elegantly refined blades of the 1700s and 1800s.

Object facts

• Title: Small Sword
• Date: 1640–60
• Culture: Germany, Passau (?), 17th century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, wood, steel wire, copper, chiseled shell guard; blade: blued, gilded, pierced and engraved
• Dimensions: Overall: 104.5 cm (41 1/8 in.); Blade: 86 cm (33 7/8 in.); Guard: 7.6 cm (3 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1099

A detail from the museum

This small sword has a veritable panoply of animal imagery. Men ride horses across the crossguard, the horizontal element closest to the blade, and around the pommel, the globular tip of the handle. Mythical animals feature prominently on the guard, the semi-circular piece that covered the knuckles.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Christie, Manson & Woods, London. Choice collection of works of art, mostly of the XVth, XVIth and XVIIth centuries. Mar 8-12, 1898. Lot 268.
• 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.

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.