Die "Schweizersäbel" der Sammlung Vogel

Abstract

Three Swiss sabres are among the particularly remarkable weapons of the Vogel Collection, which was on loan to the Swiss National Museum between 1912 and 1947. The term used for this particular type of hilted weapon was coined by the curator Dr Eduard Achilles Gessler, who managed the weapon-militaria department of the museum between 1910 and 1945. When drawing up the inventory of the Vogel Collection in 1912 Gessler listed these three weapons as ‘Schweizersäbel’ for the first time. In his essays published in the Zeitschrift für historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde in 1913 and 1914 on the subject of Swiss sabres, Gessler justified the new terminology and analysed this kind of weapon, which had not been acknowledged as a separate type previously. While it subsequently became clear that ‘Schnepf’ had been the contemporary name, the use of ‘Schweizersäbel’ has continued. The sabre first emerged in Switzerland around 1540 when unknown cutlers took customary sword hilts with ‘branch pommel’ (Astknauf) and set those with slightly curved blades usually made in Germany (Collection Vogel, Inventory No. 2541). Similar curved blades had been imported into Switzerland from around 1550 by the Munich swordsmiths Ständler and Diefstetter, as local producers were unable to make this type. The hilts with ‘branch pommel’ of the first Swiss sabres were replaced with an elegant construction including the characteristic, split pommel with two beaked extensions. One example of this rare type is held in the Collection Vogel: a weapon dated 1561 formerly owned by the Zürich councilman Kaspar Hess (Collection Vogel, Inventory No. 2540). This hilt design, which originated in Switzerland, probably in Zürich, was soon replaced by hilts incorporating lions’ heads. From around 1570 chiseled Swiss sabre hilts incorporating lion’s head pommels were exported from Germany, primarily Munich. Swiss cutlers soon produced similar weapons or variants of the popular lion head hilt, which remained in use until the middle of the 18th century. The iron hilts of the Swiss sabres made in the 16th and 17th century and their corresponding set of tools (byknife and bodkin) were sometimes additionally decorated with silver leaf. Starting in around 1600 brass, and less frequently copper was used for pommels and other decorative elements. One exception is the hilt of the third sabre in the Collection Vogel (Invento-ry No. 2542), which is entirely made of brass, was silver-plated and probably made in Zürich in 1620 still with a split pommel with beaked extensions. In the second half of the 16th and the early 17th entury, Swiss sabres and Swiss daggers were among the favorite hilted weapons used by members of the political and military elite as well as wealthy artisans and farmers in Switzerland.