🇫🇷⚔️⚒️As early as the 13th C. Bordeaux in France was renowned for the quality and manufacture of swords (and other weapons & armor)….👇🏻 King Henry III (1207-1272) of England imported “100 targets (shields) & 100 lances made at Bordeaux at a total of 40 livres. In Froissart’s Chronicles alone there are more than 20 references to the famous swords of Bordeaux, often described as “very light and very stiff,” both long and short swords. Sir Thomas Ughtred in 1398 bequeathed “one long and one short Bordeaux sword,” illustrating their value. Froissart records that: “during The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 one Sir Robert Salle of Norwich drew a long Bordeaux sword…& began cutting and thrusting all around….He cut off a foot or a head or an arm or a leg with every stroke.” At the Joust of Vannes in 1381 combatants were “armed with visor bascinets & good swords of good Bordeaux steel.” The specific mention of Bordeaux swords illustrates how highly regarded they were. Arms and armor were produced in other French towns as well; the inventory of Louis X of France listed “17 swords of Bray and 11 of Toulouse.” The town of Chambli near Beauvais was celebrated for the quality of its maille, and there was considerable manufacture of helms both in Paris and in Brussels, a fact which Froissart alludes to when speaking of the Battle of Roosebeke, and he also mentions a “Rue de la Heaumerie” in Paris. (A street of helmet makers.) Froissart also tells a tale of Sir Peter of Bearn, who was said to have killed a bear with his “Bordeaux sword.”

⚔️🇮🇹Gilded Italian Longsword w/Copper Wire Wrapped Grip ca. 1500-1520 Material/technology: 
Blade: iron, forged, partly inlaid with gold wire. Guard, pommel: iron, forged, fire gilded. Grip: wood, copper wire, gilded. Dimensions: 
L 147 cm x W 34 cm x T 17 cm
Weight: 2.3 kg

🇩🇪⚔️German Longsword ca. 1500-1530 Blade made in Passau-Markings on blade: on one side inlaid bladesmith mark, on the other side the Passau Wolf with traces of a brass exchange. Pommel and quillons carry the carved number 19. Overall Length: 125 cm Weight: 1.8 kg

⚔️10th C. Pattern Welded w/Silver Hilt Viking Chieftan’s Sword (N. European) The richly decorated hilt and pattern-welded blade indicate that this sword was carried by a warrior of high rank, perhaps a Viking chieftain or a Frankish nobleman. The braided copper wires on the pommel may represent an earlier Scandinavian custom of tying a protective talisman to a sword hilt. The pattern-welded blade was forged of intertwined rods of steel and iron, a technique that produced a tough yet resilient blade with a distinctive swirling pattern on its surface. Such blades were treasured for both their practical and decorative qualities. •Medium: Steel, copper, silver, niello •Dimensions: L. 37 3/4 in. (95.9 cm); L. of blade 31 7/8 in. (81 cm); W. 4 5/16 in. (11 cm); Wt. 2 lb. 4 oz. (1021 g)