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Calendar sword: M.9-1947

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Current Location: Gallery 31 (Armoury)

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Calendar sword. Back edged blade etched with a calendar and a list of saints' days for the year.

Notes

History note: Sold at Sotheby's July 9th 1931, Lot 91, £40, illustrated. Bought from the Stead Collection, October 18th 1947

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1947-10-18) by The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Dating

16th Century, Mid
Circa 1540 CE - 1550 CE

Note

This elegant sword, with a walnut grip of possible later date, has a blade engraved with a perpetual calendar. Besides each date, the calendar letters, a to g for Sunday to Saturday, and the names of saints whose festival it is, were etched. The months have a mixture of Germanic and Latin names. This unusual sword was probably more decorative than for actual use.

Components of the work

Blade Length 70.12 cm Width 4 cm
Decoration

Materials used in production

Steel

Techniques used in production

Casting (process) : Sword, cast with etched decoration

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.9-1947
Primary reference Number: 18879

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 29 April 2024

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Calendar sword" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/18879 Accessed: 2025-12-05 14:39:34

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/18879 |title=Calendar sword |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 14:39:34|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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