Hunting Sword and Scabbard

Unknown

hilt, ca. 1700; blade, ca. 1700–1725 · Steel, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), gold, wood, ray skin · Arms and Armor

The European taste for Asian designs and materials was particularly strong in the early eighteenth century. European-style sword hilts made of shakudō, an alloy of copper and gold that was popular in Japan for sword fittings, appear to have been made at Deshima for the Dutch East India Company, which exported them to Holland to be fitted out with European blades.

Artist

Unknown

Date

hilt, ca. 1700; blade, ca. 1700–1725

Medium

Steel, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), gold, wood, ray skin

Culture

hilt, Japanese, made for the European market

Department

Arms and Armor

Credit line

Gift of Jean Jacques Reubell, in memory of his mother, Julia C. Coster, and of his wife, Adeline E. Post, both of New York City, 1926