Fencing Fatality, c. 1936

Did a recent find bring SHotS to the limits of our research ability? Who can help match the picture with its story?

Lines in the Sand: The ins and outs of 19th-century fencing spaces

—by J. Christoph Amberger (republished from a 2019 piece over at Duelingswords.wordpress.com)

What follows is a veritable smorgasbord of late 19th- and early 20th-century fencing images illustrating the development of early modern fencing’s combative spaces. You better pour yourself a stiff one.

Drills and bouts require an even surface for fencers to move on. Wooden floors covered with fine sand or saw dust were ideal. Less so, but still acceptable, were sanded or graveled walkways that would provide fencers and duelists with reasonably firm attachment to the ground. Footwork quickly created the danger of rolling an ankle—but when used as the background for a new-fangled photograph, sandy surfaces preserved an impression of actual movement for eternity…

Schläger by another name

The Reformschläger‘s split-second moment of marginal fame

Saber Fencing at Joinville-le-Pont, 1900-1914

Boston Tea and Mad King George: The Six Degrees of Henry Angelo

Patriotism may be the last refuge of scoundrels. But it’s also  one of the great sources of historical irony. The War of 1812 created one such irony, as far as the classical canon of fencing literature is concerned.

This one is quite complex, as indeed anything should be that manages to connect personages as diverse as a prominent member of the Boston Tea Party, Mad King George, the Hessian mercenaries—and the ubiquitous fencing master dynasty of the Angelos in a game that makes the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon look as one-dimensional as a Partridge Family reunion special…

Combative celebrity: The 1796 Rules and Regulations

Leafing through the most recent issue of the Smithsonian magazine, tellingly titled 101 Objects that Changed America, you can admire Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers, Bell’s telephone, and the titillating  tassels of the Talahassee Tassel Tosser.

(Alright, I made up the last one.)

Unfortunately, no fencer, swordsman, or whatever the appropriate term is that sectarian xiphomachophiliacs apply to their respective niche, made it into the issue. 

Are there artifacts whose provenance can be traced to individual celebrities of bladed combat? Luckily, there are a few things in the Amberger Collection that can make up for that shortcoming… and perhaps, with the help of our readers, we can come up with at least a Dirty Dozen…

The Best Sword Show: See you March 16 in Timonium, MD!

Same time, same place. Every year in mid-March, the Maryland Arms & Armor Collectors Association puts on a monumental sales show.

Hope I’ll see you there on Saturday!

Weapons: The Subtlety of the Modern Sports Sabers

Collectors of modern sports weapons face a bit of a dilemma. It’s almost impossible to tell a piece of recent scrap metal found in the back of the club armory from a weapon with at least budding historical value.

Luckily, some old fencing equipment catalogs provide a clue at dating and contextual placement. Like the 1938 catalog of Vince Fencing Equipment, Inc., which provides some clues to early sports sabers…

Italian-School Saber: “Slipping the Leg”

Since we just reviewed and edited this posting and still have one more article on Italian-style sports saber in the pipeline, we’ve decided to make this “Eye-talian Saber Week” at SHotS Fencing Classics…

Massed Assault: The Choreography of Group Instruction

Group class vs. individual lesson?

The armed and police forces of the world had their choices made for them by virtue of the very number of recruits needing instruction.

But how did they get them to look good from a distance…