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This site contains a full extract from
the book Catalogue of European
Court Swords and Hunting Swords
by Bashford Dean. With the exception
of this short introduction all text
is directly from the book. You can
navigate to a particular page using
the links above or move through the
pages in order using the 'next' and
'back' links. Page numbers shown above
do not correspond with page numbers
in the book. Considering how text
in books flows from one page to another
and how illustrations are often not
on the same page from which they are
referred in the text, it seems more
reasonable to rearrange the text and
illustrations slightly to make things
easier on the Web. Book pages are
shown in the text in red in case you
need to refer to the actual book page.
Spelling is interesting in that it
is a mix of present US and British
spelling, somewhat like modern Canadian
spelling but different still. Text
was extracted using OCR and this can
lead to some strange results. If you
see anything that simply doesn't make
sense please contact
me and I will check it out.
The swords are numbered with the same
numbers used in the book. The plates
in the book are numbered using Roman
Numerals and you can navigate
to them directly by clicking on the
plate number in the top navigation
field. Clicking on the sword image
beside the text opens the plate page.
I have a great interest in swords of
all types. I hesitate to call myself
a collector because of the small size
and lack of continuity in my collection.
If I like something I buy it and if
I can't afford it (sadly all too often)
I like to admire it from afar usually
in the form of a book. This book was
recommended to me but I found that
it is scarce, expensive and not available
in most libraries. I think the information
it contains is important, interesting
and should be available to all.
This book was published in 1929 in
Paris by The Metropolitan Museum of
Art. According to a dedication in
the book just after the front matter
"The author, Dr. Bashford Dean died
December 6, 1928, while the present
work was in the press". Text pages
are letterpress and plates are lithographs.
The paper is thick and uncoated which
may be due to the type of press. Only
900 copies were printed and appear
to be hand bound. Unfortunately the
paper is not archival and is starting
to yellow and become brittle.
This work has not been reprinted and
I'm not sure that the collections
exist today in a form that would make
it possible. Please enjoy this wonderful
work.
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