The blade is usually best photographed vertically against a dark background, perhaps even black. There are a few things that just don't seem...
Yes, the old blades could be mounted in the WWII Shin-Gunto mounts. As I mentioned, the oldest that I have owned was ca. 1350, but mounted in...
Katana were in fact only used by the samurai. The katana has a blade lenght of more than 2 shaku, roughly two feet, and nobody other than the...
The sword is a Shin-Gunto katana, Army officers sword. Rank is denoted by the colour of the tassel, but the tassel here is a modern one and...
Always possible, though to be honest I can only think of two contemporary ones off hand, though as you say, there are quite probably more. The...
There is also another portrait of Anne, I believe in Oxford, that has certainly had the nose shortened, though I do not remember if this one was...
Well he probably was, originally. IIRC one of the portraits appears to have been altered, probably on the orders of Cromwell, who was desperate...
Here is Holbein's sketch for the above portrait.... [ATTACH]
Holbein's paintings are amazing, and the one of Sir Thomas More exquisitely so. However, I think that his sketches are out of this world. They...
The codpiece, which was normal wear, was suitably enlarged and prominent, as was quite normal for the period, to help portray an impressive,...
This is the origin of Henry's nick name, 'Old copper nose', though this wasn't for some reason ever used in his presence! :angelic::happy: The...
At first I thought probably one of the M 80 series of US bombs, but looking carefully, there are no obvious joins where warhead or tail are...
Perhaps for something like an officers dinner jacket or something similar. I couldn't say that they were of the Napoleonic era, but I would say,...
They look to me like silversmiths repousseé tools, used by silversmiths etc. for embossing metal. Most smiths, myself included, make these punches...
Thank you! I do check in from time to time, but there hasn't been anything of late that I could possibly add much of anything to. But, It is nice...
I think that this is a quite modern, perhaps tourist piece, or possibly cobbled together using available parts, though quite possibly with an...
I am sorry to say, but this is a tourist piece, almost certainly. A real mixture of styles, and seemingly, has not been in the water for very...
It is a type of sword, commonly known as a 'Walloon sword', these begin to appear from about 1650, and were in use in one form or another until...
I think that it is simply an assembly number. Usually these are painted on the tang (nakago) in red, white or black paint, but I have had a couple...
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