Scottish military sword with a basket hilt. It is double-edged with a groove in the first half section. It has no identifying marks.
It belongs to the sub-category called the broadsword, with a blade typically double-edged and between 715 and 965 mm long. These swords, along with the backsword, are part of the baskethilt group. These swords began to be produced in the mid-16th century with soberly decorated guards and with a single engraved plate on each side of the grip, sustained by a few curved circular quillons. The English referred to them as "Irish" which is the name given to everything related to the Gaelic-speaking culture, in both Scotland and Ireland.
This sword has all the features characterising those produced in the 18th century: the more complex and extensive guard, a quadrangular profile in the quillons, Celtic decorative motifs, including hearts, and a blade -40 mms- slightly less thin than before.
The alignments of the quillons and the arrangement of the plates associate it with Glasgow rather than Stirling, the country's other main production centre. These swords were characterised by not having their blades forged in Scotland, but in important production centres in Germany, Spain or Italy.
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