Rare épée à deux mains, Allemagne vers 1560-70.... - Lot 225 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Rare épée à deux mains, Allemagne vers 1560-70. A rare German two-hand sword, circa 1560-70. With long double-edged blade of flattened hexagonal section flattened and rectangular at the ricasso, coming to a short point, cut with linear-bordered fullers capped by a cross mark and stamped with the prayer "O MATER DEI MEMENTO MEI" on both sides at the forte, the ricasso cut with an additional pair of linear-bordered fullers and formed with a pair of short lugs, these with flat outer edge and each struck with the bladesmith's mark (in a shaped recess the letters AB, beneath M, beneath a cross), large iron hilt of plain oval bars, formed with a pair of long straight quillons widening towards the ends, pointed écusson, a pair of D-shaped rings inside and out, large stopper-shaped pommel, and original leather-covered wooden grip formed in two stages divided by raised mouldings. L. overall: 178.5 cm - L. blade: 129 cm - W.: 48,5 cm. Provenance: Galerie Fischer, 17th -18th June 1993, lot 8095 (Sold CHF 17,000). The same prayer is engraved in an abridged version on the blade of a German dagger dating from circa 1490-1510, preserved in The Wallace Collection, London (A 733).