Sword (c. 1400): Art, History and Details

Sword (c. 1400) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The principal weapon of the European knight was his sword, a simple weapon with a broad, two-edged blade, a straight crossguard, and a round pommel or counterweight. The pommel gave the knight full mastery of a perfectly balanced weapon. The basic shape of the sword did not change significantly between 1200 and 1500.

Object facts

• Title: Sword
• Date: c. 1400
• Culture: European, early 15th century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, leather, wire
• Dimensions: Overall: 85.3 cm (33 9/16 in.); Blade: 71.7 cm (28 1/4 in.); Quillions: 16.7 cm (6 9/16 in.); Grip: 12.7 cm (5 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1921.1252

A detail from the museum

A sword required a different composition of steel than armor; as a result swordsmithing centers of Europe differ from those that specialized in armor.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• American Art Association. An Important Collection of Ancient Arms and Armor. 1921.
• 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.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.

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.