Very Fine Mid-17th Century English Basket Hilt “Mortuary” Broadsword

34 inch blade with broad single fuller is 1 and 3/8th inches wide at forte. Large basket hilt is finely chiseled throughout with flowers and foliage. Traces of original silver throughout. Pommel chiseled ensuite with guard. Wood grip tightly bound with spirally twisted copper wire surmounted by copper “Turk’s Heads”.

Condition overall is excellent for a nearly 400 year old broadsword. This is a particularly elegant and well executed example of one of the classic swords carried by both Roundhead and Cavalier officer’s during the English Civil War. A similar sword carried by the Lord Protector himself, Oliver Cromwell, was in the collection of Otto Von Kienbusch now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.