Amsterdam Town Guard Sword + Bonus.
Jun 6, 2015 19:37:00 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Jun 6, 2015 19:37:00 GMT
Though from an earlier date than the sword I think, It is good depiction of what the several Amsterdam Town Guards were all about, at least in peaceful times. What makes this painting all the more interesting for me are two things: See the guy hanging out of the window? See that enormous wine glass he sports? Even in those days a glass like that would cost you a small fortune. The second thing that interests me, is the sword held by the seigneur to the right of the window, just behind the gentleman clad in white silks. Never seen a sword guard like that before. The underside is like the A&A German Bastard, but what is the lyre shaped thing doing there?
Back to the sword I would like to show you. Though it has a Waloon blade, the hilt is not of the standard Waloon type. It reminds me of a German Feld Degen.
Blade length is 77 cm or 30.3" which makes this possibly an Infantry weapon. Weight is 999 grams and the POB is 6.5 cm or 2.6" in front of the guard.
It feels very light and is very fast. The basket though is a little too small for my hands. It has the Amsterdam marks and the running wolf says it is a Solingen blade.
It is well made and has some nice details like the screw with an hole in it on top of the pommel, an implement I know from Scottish Basket Hilts, the small reinforcement lip on the thin end of the knuckle bow where it is screwed to the pommel and nice ribs on said knuckle bow too.
Even after such a long time, everything is tight and the grip wire is complete and strong too. The inscription in the fullers reads ** SA HA GOM **, often seen on Waloon blades, but what it means is an enigma to me.
On one side of the blade, the ,,public'' side, is a small inscription, right next to the Amsterdam mark, which reads I N L . No idea what that means either.
The bonus.
This 18th C. hunting sword cq dagger or maybe Cuttoe found me via Ebay. The seller did not sell to Europe, but after I mailed him and explained I must have it because it was made in the city where I live, he changed the shipping destination, so I could bid. Thank you very much!
Blade length is 57 cm or 22.4" and overall length is 68.5 cm or 27''. The grip is covered in shagreen, it has a nice pommel cap, but no guilons.
I wondered about that. It was either made this way or the guilon block was removed a long time ago. There are no signs of modern tampering as far as I can see. The blade starts out at a no kidding 9 mm thick at the spine, which has an engraving of an arrow and lines.
It has two narrow fullers at either side and an 18 cm long false edge. This is a serious blade and I am lucky that the tip is still present. Quite a few of the hunting blades I have seen lost the tip.
Now for the fun part.
On both sides of the blade is a sort of cachet, a space for the inscriptions. Here they are quite long, for there is a lot of text in large font, reading:
:: CLEMENT WOLFERTSCH SWAARTVEGER IN DE WARMOES :: STRAET IN DE KONING VAN ENGLAND TOT AMSTERDAM ::
I talked about this sword with several people and one of them ( Thanks Erik! ) has access to a restricted archive, as in non public, in City Hall. He offered to have a look and try to find something about this Clement. He struck gold. Here is what he found:
The ,,Koning van England'' was the name of a building on what is now Warmoestraat 121. Clement sold it in 1753.
In 1623 a ,,Sasgen Wolferts'' lives in the Warmoestraat at a different location.
Opposite of what is now nr 121 stood a house, now nr 114, that belonged to Clement too, according to an inheritance deed dated 1757.
The former owners were Dirkje van Gelder and Jacob Wolffers ( notice how the spelling changes). The name of the building was ,, Het Kasteel van Gelre''.
In 1680 a Clement Wolfferts is named as the owner of a building just to the north of nr 114A and he was the great grandfather of Jacob.
At nr 114B lived a Griet Wolfferts, who paid interest in 1606 and 1609.
And now for what Erik consideres the gold nugget: In 1696, at Warmoestraat 150, lived a Joannes Wolfers, Swaartveger!
Number 150 was either called ,, Het Swarte Paert'' ( the black horse) or ,, De Vergulde Haring'' ( the gilded herring)(really!).
Nr 150 was sold in 1766. The names of the people involved are Lucas and Jan Wolffers, children of Jan Wolffers and Catharina Vergeel.
Also named in this deed is Johanna Wolffers, the daughter of Willem Wolffers. All the people named have a stake in the house and so the rent thereoff. So, the Wolffer(t)s family lived in the Warmoestraat since 1623 untill far into the 18th Century and one could say that the making of knives, Swaartveger, ran in the family.
Since Clement sold the Koning van England in 1753, this could mean that my hunting dagger, or the blade at least, was made before that date. Inscriptions like these were a sort of advertisements, so daggers and other cutlery made after 1753 would have the new location inscribed in them.
If you type the addresses into Google Maps with Streetview, you will see the locations of the various Wolfferts residences and a little of one of the oldest parts of Amsterdam. It all started in this neighbourhood. Have fun!