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Production: Unknown
The pommel is from a basket-hilted sword. An inscription 'AFORBES' (with the F the wrong way round) is punched (pontillé style) along one length (nothing on the other): name of previous owner?
History note: Christie's, London, 3 March, 1949, Lot 76, vendor not named
Bought with the General Duplicates Fund
Length: 135.4 cm
Method of acquisition: Bought (1949-03-11) by Christie's
16th Century, Early#
Circa
1500
CE
-
1530
CE
The claymore is a two-handed sword of a type used in Scotland from the 15th to 17th century.
The claymore, which has this very distinctive form of hilt and guard, was used in Scotland, its name said to be derived from the Gaelic for great sword, claidheamh-mor. The claymore became well known through the writings of Sir Walter Scott in the 19th century and became, along with the kilt, very strongly associated with the rise in Scottish romanticism. This, very characteristic, example has the name AFORBES (with the F the wrong way round) on one side of the blade, probably the name of a former owner.
Across Quillons
Width 31.1 cm
Blade
Width 5.4 cm
Casting (process) : Sword, cast
Inscription present: the F is written backwards
Accession number: M.2-1949
Primary reference Number: 18874
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Claymore" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/18874 Accessed: 2024-12-19 17:50:47
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/18874
|title=Claymore
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-19 17:50:47|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-18874
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa19/M_2_1949.jpg"
alt="Claymore"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Claymore</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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