Early 14th century AD. A Western Middle Age iron half and hand sword from Germany, of Oakeshott's Type XIIIA, cross style 1 (in early form, spike-hilt), pommel type G of facetted wheel shape; the long blade has edges running nearly parallel to the spatulate tip; just below the hilt, before the edges begin their virtual straight running to the point, the blade is swelling slightly in width; the double-edged blade shows a marked groove extending for most part of its length, creating a tip area that is wide and flat and it is optimised for shearing blows; the cross-section is lenticular, like a flattened ovoid shape, made from a simple and straight twisted iron bar; the grip is longer than usual type XIII allowing for the off-hand to be used for extra leverage and power; the pommel is a full disc of G type, decorated on both sides by a traced Latin cross; some corrosions and pitting, although the full sword is well preserved. See Hewitt,J., Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe, 3 vols. London and Oxford, 1855–60; Oakeshott, E.,The sword in the Age of the Chivalry, Woodbridge, 1964 (1994); Oakeshott, E., Records of the Medieval Sword, Woodbridge, 1991; the sword, belongs to the Oakeshott type XIIIA of 'war sword' (Oakeshott,1991, pp.95ff.) and has a good parallel with a sword in the London Museum, dating from 1300-1350 AD and found in the River Thames (Oakeshott, 1991, p.99); another important parallel is with a sword in the Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery, dated between 1100 and 1350 AD (Oakeshott,1991, p.100), and another one in Glasgow dated between 1200-1250 AD or 1100-1150 AD (Oakeshott, 1991, p.105, n.11); a good early example of such swords is the sword of Edward III in Saint George's chapel in Windsor Castle, which has been there since the Order of the Garter or at least when the chapel was founded in the mid-14th century; one of the early images is kept in the Tenison Psalter made in 1280 AD, kept in the British Museum (Oakeshott, 1991, p.95); here a knight, wearing a Great Helm and ringmail armour under a surcoat, is brandishing with two hands a heavy sword of such typology, the shield on his back, killing a giant enemy dressed in a similar way to a Saracen warrior, with a buckler, a single-edged sword and clad in mail armour; the miniature shows that these swords were devastatingly effective in slashing attacks from horseback or two-handed use when dismounted; another English manuscript, an Apocalypse of St. John made c. 1300-1310 AD, shows many of these great swords; last but not least a sword of the same dimensions with a similar hilt, including the cross in the central boss of the pommel, is on the tomb-effigy at Bopfingen in Wurttemberg, dated 1359 AD, and others in Germany, Spain and England, all dating between c.1320-1360 AD, too numerous to mention individually from the iconographical point of view. 1.1 kg, 1.02m (40"). From an important private family collection of arms and armour; acquired on the European art market in the 1980s, and thence by descent; accompanied by an academic report by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato. These half and hand swords of war from the 13th and 14th centuries AD, are typically imposing and impressive. Their massive size combines with harmonic proportions, lending them a majestic grace. Despite being massive, they have such a balance that they could be wielded in one hand, although two-handed use was probably preferred. They varied greatly in size. By the 14th and 15th centuries, swords of this type tend to be of an extremely large size. The reason is partly due to the fact that XIIIa's are very big weapons, and this is probably why in their own time, they were distinguished from their smaller contemporaries by the term 'espées de Guerre' or 'Grete Swerdes'. Early examples of the type appear in the 12th century, and it remained popular until the 15th century. One must be careful however with the terminology. The references to 'Grete Swerdes' do not, as suggested by Oakeshott (1964 (1994), p.42), indicate in an comprehensive way two-hand swords, for these are always described as such, as 'espées a deux mains' or 'Twahandswerds', and need not be confused with the sword of war, which could be used with two hands, but not necessarily as a rule. The two-hander of the 13th-15th centuries was not, as in the 16th, a specialised form of weapon; it was just an out sized specimen; in the late 13th and the 14th centuries of Types XII or XIIIa, and in the 15th of Types XV or XVIII ('Arming Sword' in 15th century England"). We find even such swords, in the sources of the Age, distinguished in a class of its own, for instance, in the inventory of the effects of Humphrey de Bohun (ob. 1319 AD) made in 1322:56 'III espées: l'un des armes le dit counte, lautre de Seint George, et le tierce sarziney: le quarte de guerre' (Hewitt, vol. I, p.311").