KøbenhavnskeSværdfegereTreAarhundreder_1957

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K Ø B E N H A V N S K E S V Æ R D F E G E R E

ster o f the guild would offer his costly ma­ sterpiece to the K ing and receive a payment from the P rivy Purse. Other small swords with silver hilts are to-day in private collec­ tions, e.g. Plates 10 and n made by Poul Nielsen Truge and Matthias Johansen Hoy. They bear witness to the high standard o f Copenhagen sword-cutler’s work in the 18 th century. c h a p te r 5 THE MILITARY SUPPLIES OF THE GUILD In his posthumous work on Danish military swords, the late director o f the Tojhusmu- seum, Captain Otto Smith, lays down the results o f his comparative studies in the State Archives and the stock o f military weapons kept in his museum. His statements concer­ ning the main types are still fundamental, and only a few items from further studies in the accounts o f the Armoury are added here. The 18 th century opened with a twenty years’ period o fwar, interrupted between 170 1 and 1709 , but this pause seems also to have been one o f eager activity to secure military supplies. N ew regiments were raised and or­ ders for new weapons incessantly issued. As the sword-cutler o f the Royal Armoury was fully occupied with repair work, contracts were often made with the Copenhagen sword- cutlers who undertook the manufacture o f side-arms in common. In 1708 they made a mutual agreement to the effect that no single sword-cutler should undertake any pri­ vate order for deliveries to the army but must pass it on to the alderman o f the guild who, in his turn, would share the work among the masters. In 1 7 18 this agreement was broken by two o f the younger masters, Jacob Kopper and Anders Lihme, who made a separate con­ tract with the chief o f a regiment to provide him with 700 broadswords. Already in the reign o f Christian V ( 1670 -

1699 ), Copenhagen sword-cutlers would oc­ casionally do some work fo r the armoury. In 17 0 1 one o f the masters, Mathias Wackerland, perhaps the alderman o f that year, made pat­ terns for two soldier’s swords, probably in connexion with an order fo r 12600 new swords bought in that year from a gunsmith, Christen Hagen (cf. Plate 4,1 and 4 , 2 ). Be­ sides ordinary soldier’s swords, the broad sword is mentioned as a new type o f side-arm o f the period. Considerable quantities were ordered o f this weapon; the delivery o f 2100 pieces by Hein Kopper in 1 7 1 0 (Plates 4 , 4 ; 5 , 1 ; 5 , 2 ) may be the result o f a cooperation between several masters o f the guild. A par­ ticularly fine broad-sword is seen on Plate 2 ; the specimen in question is kept in the Rosen­ borg collection and is perhaps one out o f twelve broadswords for which Hein Kopper was paid by the King in 1 7 1 2 . Repair work also was done by the masters in common, e.g. in 1 7 1 3 when Johannes Plockross, as alder­ man, received a number o f old regimental swords to be repaired and sent to the regi­ ments in Holstein. After the peace in 1720 the repair o f old weapons and the supply o f new ones was continued on an undiminished scale. A sol­ dier’s sword, not unlike the well-known types o f dress-swords o f the century (Plate 3 ) and a new broadsword with brass hilt (Plate 5 , 3 ) probably date from the 172 0 ’s, as is the case with a broadsword, the basket-hilt o f which bears a faint likeness to a muzzle shell (Plate 5,4). Otto Smith failed to realize that a large number o f the new weapons were mounted with blades from the stock o f arms conquered in the war together with the Swedish for­ tresses in Pomerania, but although this is established, it is not yet known whether any o f the extant military swords have Swedish blades. Possibly none o f the conquered swords