Man’s first weapon was probably a club, and the simple club has always
retained a certain popularity. Even in the middle of the sixteenth
century, when arms of all kinds attained great elaboration, the mace, or
short one-handed club, was the accepted weapon of military men in holy
orders who, forbidden to shed blood, found no such prohibition against
the bloodless cracking of skulls. Fig. 27 shows such a mace, of heavy
steel, carved and gilded, a formidable though beautiful weapon. Related
arms are short-handled military axes and hammers.
But the accepted symbol of man as a fighting creature has always been
the sword, and the sword, perhaps more than any other item of man’s
warlike panoply, has experienced the full range of his artistic and
technical initiative. Space does not here permit a discussion of the
innumerable types of swords; only a brief resumé of the general
development can be given. This is supplemented by a display of some
typical forms along one side wall of the armor gallery.
[Illustration: _Fig. 27. A mace or one-handed club, made of steel
carved and gilded. A beautiful implement for smashing heads!_]
[Illustration: _Fig. 28. A Chinese bronze sword from about the time
of Christ. Not very sharp, but it could still do quite a lot of
damage._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 29. Typical swords of the sixteenth-seventeenth
centuries, as displayed in the armor gallery._]
Stone Age man could not make any true swords, for the flint and obsidian
which he had to use were too brittle to be available in large pieces.
But bronze could be cast into swords both effective and beautiful. A
number of Chinese bronze sword blades from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220
A.D.) (Fig. 28) are available in the study collection. They are rather
short, double edged blades, adapted primarily for thrusting, but not
without cutting ability too. The Greeks and Romans used swords of rather
similar form, and also another type which tended to broaden near the
point, bringing the weight forward and adding impetus to both the thrust
and the cut.
Mention has already been made, (p. 4), of the rare but beautiful swords
of the dark ages, made in whole or in part of laminated metal resembling
the Damascus steel of the Middle East, (cf. p. 20). Such swords were
carried by the Vikings who harried the coast of Britain and extended
their voyages even to North America. These swords had long, straight,
symmetrically double-edged blades, a short hilt, and a short crossbar
guard between blade and hilt. They were very powerful in a downward
slash, but too heavy to be manipulated easily as thrusting weapons.
By the fifteenth century the crossbar and the hilt had become longer,
giving the weapon a better balance, but the general character of the arm
remained the same. With the longer hilt, both hands could be used,
considerably increasing the power of the weapon (Fig. 29 [1], also title
page illustration). This tendency continued in the sixteenth century
until it culminated in the enormous two-handed swords used by the
professional mercenary soldiers, or _landesknechts_ (Fig. 29 [2]). Such
swords were over five feet long, with immense drooping guards and long
leather-wrapped hilts.
[Illustration: _Fig. 30. How many figures are carved in the solid
steel of this court sword hilt?_]
[Illustration: Court sword hilt]
As the sixteenth century advanced, sword blades became narrower,
lighter, and more adapted for thrusting, while guards developed rings
and curved knuckle-guards to protect the out-thrust hand (Fig. 29 [4],
[3]). The new method of fighting had definite advantages over the old
slashing system, which required the sword to be raised high, exposing
the body, before a blow could be struck, and soon the thrusting sword,
or _rapier_, was used everywhere. The system of rings which formed the
guard grew more complicated and finally coalesced into a solid metal
cup, which completely shielded the hand within it (Fig. 29 [6], [8]).
Sometimes a dagger (Fig. 29 [5], [7]) was held in the left hand to parry
the opponent’s sword blade, but eventually this was abandoned and
fencers learned to parry with the rear portion of their own blades,
before making a second thrust (_riposte_) with the point. Action grew
faster and faster, and swords lighter and more manageable, until by the
seventeenth century the customary weapon was the _court sword_, with a
short, single-handed hilt, a small flat guard often magnificently
decorated in chiselled steel, and a relatively short, light blade having
a needle-like point, and often without any sharp cutting edge at all
(Fig. 30).
[Illustration: _Fig. 31. A rondel dagger with a silver handle._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 32. An outfit for a hunter: dagger, knife, awl,
and larding needle, all fitting into one scabbard._]
In addition to the sword, the dagger was often used as a supplementary
weapon which could still be carried for self-protection when courtesy or
convenience made the wearing of a sword impracticable. Daggers were made
in a number of special shapes, varying with changes of fashion. In the
fifteenth century two popular forms were the _rondel dagger_ (Fig. 31)
which had guard and pommel in the form of disks, and the _kidney dagger_
(then known by a less-printable name and worn, with the naive
exhibitionism of pre-Victorian days, directly below the belt buckle)
which had a straight, simple hilt and a short guard of ball-like form.
Italians of the sixteenth century liked the _anelace_, with its drooping
guard and short, wide, sharply tapering blade. Mention has already been
made of the left-hand daggers of the seventeenth century. The
_stiletto_, without a guard other than a short cross-bar, was also
popular at this time. Hunters and landesknechts often carried a complete
outfit of small tools in the scabbard with their dagger; such a
_trousse_ (Fig. 32) was very convenient when preparing freshly-killed
venison for the cook or when eating around a camp fire.