Épée dans un style portugais, assemblage... - Lot 232 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Épée dans un style portugais, assemblage en partie XVIIe - XIXe siècle. An assembled iron sword in Portuguese style, partly 17th - 19th century. With 17th century Hispanic broadsword blade struck with a mark, 18th -19th century iron cross guard of Afro-Portuguese type crudely forged and of exaggerated proportions, formed of a pair of down-turned flat quillons with large very flat terminals each coarsely stamped with a cross fleurette (one cross partly pierced), the quillons branching towards their root to form a pair of robust arms each with knopped finial projecting outwards, modern large disc pommel and wooden grip, and in heavily patinated condition throughout. L. overall: 102.8 cm - L. blade: 85.5 cm - W.: 19.7 cm. A series of swords with this type of cross-guard and a ball-type pommel, obviously of European type and said to be of Portuguese inspiration, are recorded as ceremonial swords from the Congo, and called "m'bele yalulendo". See the catalogue of the exhibition "Kinus of Africa" held in Maastricht in 1942. A sword hilt of related type with its original pommel was included in L'Épée - Usages, mythes et symboles, loan exhibition, musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen Age, 28 avril - 26 septembre 2011, catalogue pp. 22 and 121, No. 39, fig. 14 (loan of The Furusiyya Art Foundation, London, R. 279).