AUCTIONS IMPERIAL DECEMBER 2020
Lot 288:
Description
The hemispherical cup with integrally-forged branches joining the guard and knucklebow, with mushroom-form pommel and chequered horn grip. Long, broad, double-edged blade of flattened hexagonal section tapering continuously to the tip.Mid-17th century. Brown overall, minor chipping to grip. Swords of this form are known as the Caribbean cuphilt; they were produced both in Europe and the New World, but endemic to the Spanish Main (Spanish possessions in the New World directly accessible from Spain, including the coastline from present-day Florida to Venezuela and the Caribbean Islands.) They are one of the very few weapons which may be authentically ascribed to privateers generally and to buccaneers, who preyed on the Spanish Main, most specifically. Most Caribbean cuphilts have been shortened and modified through hard use over the centuries. This example remains untouched. See Spanish Military Weapons in Colonial America, 1700 – 1821. By Sidney B. Brinckerhoff and Pierce A. Chamberlain. Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1972, 72, for a precisely similar example in the Arizona Historical Society Collection, Tucson, Arizona. Overall length114cm.
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