Sword (c.1550): Art, History and Details

Sword (c.1550) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The hilt of this sword is russeted, a decorative technique popular in France and England that imparts a brownish color to the surface of the metal. It was achieved by a chemical process that involved treating the steel surface with a mild corrosive medium. As an added benefit the process also helps protect against rust.

Object facts

• Title: Sword
• Date: c.1550
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, hilt russetted, leather grip
• Dimensions: Overall: 100 cm (39 3/8 in.); Blade: 87 cm (34 1/4 in.); Quillions: 6.3 cm (2 1/2 in.); Grip: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1715

A detail from the museum

There are three unidentified marks inlaid on the ricasso or the unsharpened blade just above the guard.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], 1900.
• 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.