with markedly tapering straight double-edged blade of flattened diamond-section with shallow concave faces and a sturdy acute point (Oakeshott type VIII), struck on each face with a maker's mark (one filled edge nick towards the forte), iron hilt comprising a pair of quillons of flattened-diamond section, swelling at the centre to form an écusson and tapering towards their downturned terminals, large wheel-shaped pommel (Oakeshott type J), recessed on each face with a circular panel centring around a small dimple, low pyramidal button with squared off top, plain tapering tang, and in characteristic excavated black-patinated stable condition throughout, 73.0 cm blade, 90.4 cm overall

Provenance

Christie’s London, 8th July 1980, lot 37

An Important English Private Collection

Literature

Oakeshott, Ewart, A River-Find of 15th Century Swords, in, Stuber, Karl and Wetter, Hans, Blankwaffen, 1982, pp. 17-32, sword no. 4.

Oakeshott, Ewart, Further Notes on a River-Find of 15th Century Swords, in, The First Park Lane Arms Fair, 1984, pp. 7-12, illustrated pp. 7-8.

Oakeshott, Ewart, Records of the Medieval Sword, 1991, p. 134, sword no. XV8.

Oakeshott Ewart, The Swords of Castillon, in, The Tenth Park Lane Arms Fair, 1993, pp. 7-16, illustrated p. 10, no. B Thomas, Clive, Additional Notes on the Swords of Castillon, in, The Park Lane Arms Fair, 2012, pp. 40-63, illustrated p. 47.

This very well formed and remarkably well preserved sword has been described as 'one of the finest and.....the most handsome' (Oakeshott 1984, op.cit.) found near the site of the last battle of the 100 Years War. Fought near Castillon in Gascony in 1453, the battle was won decisively by the French, who used cannon for the first time with devastating effect against the English. The latter included a task force that had been specially raised and equipped in England by John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who was at that point in his 70s. Some years earlier the Earl had been released, on condition that he never again don armour, which he did and was killed by a ball at that battle. In Monstrelet’s account written shortly afterwards he wrote that a number of English escaped across the River Dordogne, where the group to which this sword belongs was found later on: ‘those who could not enter the town fled by land or water, but in regard to the last, they were mostly all drowned…’