How to knot the suspension for a 15th century scabbard (by Mathieu Harlaut)
Fellow myArmoury-member Mathieu Harlaut writes:
“After looking for a while to some XVth century artworks (paintings and statues) and also to the pictures on Albion website, I managed to find the way to do those knots.
The main references I used are :
- 2 portraits of the Duke of Urbino : “Montefeltro Altar” in Milan by Piero della Francesca / “Federico da Montefeltro ans his son Guidobaldo” in Urbino
- One altar by Rogier Van der Weyden : “The Sforza Tryptich” in Brussel
- The statue of Gattemelata in Padua by Donatello
It shows the same knot as the one done by Albion. The knot is very efficient to hold the scabbard, in fact I am not sure that a riser is needed to prevent it from moving . I tried a couple of other way to make them before but the result wasn’t so good.
I have seen a couple of other XVth century pictures with this kind of knot but the ones above are the most obvious and helpfull. The picure show sometimes one knot on the scabbard, but usually two, never more.
A couple of days ago I made some picture to explain to a friend of mine.
Very important thing: you need a very long strap of leather. On this kind of sword hanger, there is more of the leather strap around the scabbard than between the scabbard and belt, about 3 times more!”
Thanks, Mathieu, for this excellent guide!
(Quelle: myarmoury.com)
