Saxon Sword (Reitschwert), ca. 1580

  • German

Steel, silver, wood, leather

  • Overall: 47 × 11 3/4 × 5 1/2 inches (119.4 × 29.8 × 14 cm) Overall (Length of Blade): 37 inches (94 cm) Overall (Scabbard): 37 1/2 × 3 × 3/4 inches (95.3 × 7.6 × 1.9 cm)

Gift of William Randolph Hearst Foundation

53.215

On View

  • Great Hall, Level 2, West
  • Great Hall, Level 2, West

Department

European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Collector's mark, on sword: OS/SO. Marks, on scabbard, punched six times: A [or A ?] [possibly scabbard-maker's mark] Marks, on scabbard, on silver chape, at the top on the reverse: D [and the goldsmith's mark] Wolf Paller

Inscription, engraved on blade: WA

until at leat May 11, 1927, (Cyril Andrade, London, England). William Randolph Hearst

by 1951, William Randolph Hearst Foundation

1953-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Andrade, C. Catalogue and Photographs of a Collection of Arms and Armour in the Possession of Messrs Cyril Andrade Ltd. Part 5. London, 1927, no. 53; p. 9 (ill.). Schedelmann, H. "Konrad Fecit, The Story of the Remarkable Forger." Connoisseur 122, no. 509 (September 1948): pp. 8-13, 55. Schedelmann, H. "Konrad Fecit, The Story of the Remarkable Forger." Connoisseur 122 (December 1948): pp. 104-109 Robinson, F.W. "A Gift of Arms and Armor from the Collection of William Randolph Hearst." Bulletin of the DIA 33, no. 1 (1953-1954): pp. 1-5. Schedelmann, H. "Konrad Fecit." Waffen-und Kostümkunde 13, no. 1 (1971): pp. 52-61.

German, Saxon Sword (Reitschwert), ca. 1580, steel, silver, wood, leather. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of William Randolph Hearst Foundation, 53.215.