Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 17. 1976 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1978)

Közlemények – Mitteilungen - O’Connor, B. — Mozsolics A.: Remarks on Rigsee Swords. p. 185–189.

KÖZLEMÉNYEK—MITTEILUNGEN REMARKS ON RIEGSEE SWORDS A Riegsee Sword in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Hoard from Buzica, Slovakia The purpose of this note is to republish a Riegsee sword, now in an English collection, to confirm its attribution to a hoard from Slovakia, and to correct the erroneous identification of a sword in a Canadian collection as part of this hoard. In the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, there is a Riegsee sword (Fig. 1,1; fig. 2). It has a tapering blade with a broad midrib and the point has been broken off. The blade bears slight remains of concretion but abundant striations indicate that much more concretion was roughly removed after the discovery of the sword ; there are many deep notches in the edges and these notches appear to be of modern origin, as if the sword had been used in combat against an iron blade. The convex shoulders have two rivets. The grip is convex in profile, its section lozenge-shaped in the centre, more rounded above and below. The pommel is oval with a central knob of truncated conical form. The metal of the hilt is of a different quality from that of the blade and the metal of the rivets appears different again. The surface is missing from parts of the hilt but where it remains it is not otherwise worn, the decoration is preserved in very good condition and the full scheme of ornament can be recognised. On the shoulders are four triple circles, the inner two larger than the outer ; below these are three bands of lines which curve up along the shoulders. At the bottom of the grip are three horizontal lines, at the top twelve. The zone in between is filled with vertical chains made up of interlocking motifs with two or three notches inside each link. On the lower side of the pommel there is an inner triple line, a band of panels containing notches, a central double line, another band of panels and an outer single line. On the upper side of the pommel there is an inner triple line, four chains and an outer double line. On the knob are oblique notches. The circles on the shoulders, the lines on the grip and the lines on the upper side of the pommel show a series of tool-marks, while the S motifs and the lines on the shoulders and the lower side of the pommel are smooth, without any such marks; this suggests the use of two different techniques (Lowery-Savage-Wilkins 1971, 167 — 182; Lowery-Savage-Wilkins 1972, 165-169). The sword is 65.4 cm long. This sword is labelled, Bosita, Abauj County, Hungary, and it formed part of the collection of Sir John Evans who acquired it from the Egger Collection (1891, 9 no. 53, pi. VIII); it had earlier been in the Graffenried Collection when it was published by J. H a m p e 1 (1897, Taf. XXI, 5) as part of a hoard from Buzita, Abaúj County, found in 1858. This hoard containad two other swords, one Riegsee sword in Kosice Museum (ibid., Taf. XXI, 3) and the other, fragmentary, was lost soon after its discovery. In 1943 Kühn published a brief note on four Hungarian solid-hilted swords in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, (Fig. 1,2) and identified one as the Buzita sword from the Graffenried Collection (1941/42, 262, Taf. 97, right), apparently because of the similarity of its decoration to that illustrated by J. H a m p e 1 (1897, Taf. XXI, 5). This identification has been repeated by subsequent writers (Holste 1953, 52, nos. 42-44; NOVOTNÁ 1970, 42, 92; Mozsolics 1976, 13 — 14). The sword in Toronto was formerly in the Sturge Collection and its only provenance is 'Hungary', where it is said to have been found in 1858. The ornament on the hilt of the Toronto sword displays the same motifs as the Oxford sword with minor differences, e. g. the number of lines at the top of the grip and the motif on the knob, but the ornament on the Toronto sword is very worn. The form of the hilts is slightly different, e. g. the shoulders of the Toronto sword form a more markedly Í85