A fine and very rare medieval broadsword with rock crystal wheel-pommel,Late 14th/first half of the 15th Century

the blade cut with a broad very shallow central fuller framed by a pair of narrow fullers converging towards the tip on each face and cut with a running wolf mark retaining traces of latten inlay on one side, iron cross-piece of tapering rectangular section down-turned at the tips and incorporating a pair of slender centrally ridged écussons,  retaining its original large rock crystal pommel of robust wheel shape carved with a distinctive ridge running from the base of the centre to the joint with the grip on both sides (natural flaws, one face cracked below the tang button resulting in a very small chip), and fitted with an early two-stage leather-covered wooden grip incorporating a latten fillet at the base and another beneath the prominent tang button (the blade and cross-piece with patches of light pitting)

Medieval swords with hardstone pommels are extremely rare.  A sword of similar date with a jasper wheel-pommel was sold Sotheby’s Sussex, 15th July 1996, lot 42, £22,425. A rock-crystal wheel-pommel of similar form and now detached is preserved in the Royal Armouries, Leeds.  See A. R.Dufty 1974, p.18, plate 23.  Another, also detached, formerly in the collection of Sir Guy Francis Laking and illustrated in his Record of European Armour and Arms (vol.I p.139, fig 171), was sold Christie, Manson & Woods, 19th April 1920, lot 163.