Late 16th century AD. A Western European war hammer (reiterhammer) made of two pieces, the iron shaft and the head; the head made as a single solid iron bar, shaped like a squared hammer from one side and a pointed curved spike from the other side; the head showing a strong quadrangular outline, fixed to the shaft with an upper insertion hole and then rivetted, with the help of an auxiliary iron cap; the spike is a 'raven beak' shape of pointed section, while the hammer is flat at the top; the shaft is circular and ends, in the lower part, with a short handle between two and three circular grooves. See Thordeman, B.,Armour from the Battle of Wisby, Malmö, 1939 (2001); Wilkinson, H., Antique Arms and Armour, London, 1972; Edge D., Miles Paddock J., Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight, London, 1988; our war hammer is of the type used by European cavalry in the 16th century, represented in the iconography (battle of San Romano, painting by Paolo Uccello of 1455 AD; portrait of Maurice of Saxony made in 1578 AD by Lucas Cranach the Younger) and correspondent with various specimens, such as the one exhibited in the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. 903 grams, 58cm (22 3/4").From an important private family collection of arms and armour; acquired on the European art market in the 1980s, and thence by descent; accompanied by an academic report by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato.This war hammer is of the type used by European cavalry in the 16th century, represented in iconography (battle of San Romano, painting by Paolo Uccello of 1455 AD; portrait of Maurice of Saxony made in 1578 AD by Lucas Cranach the Younger) and showing parallels with similar examples in the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. Reiterhammers of this type are called ‘raven’s beak’ (bec de courbin) in the sources; the shaft was originally a wooden shank reinforced by metal shafts with one-handed handle, but in the later models, like our specimen, the astile could be entirely in metal, thinner than the wooden one, with guard and knob to better ensure the grip on the handle for a user wearing a glove. The war hammer was developed to counter the protection offered by plate armour, which made simple cutting weapons useless. In a military context dominated by the figure of the knight in plate armour, the sword lost its status as a weapon par excellence. The evolution of this offensive weapon ran in parallel with that of complete armour. When the latter developed ridges to limit the damage from thrusting hits, the war hammer gained prominence as a penetrating weapon. Weapons capable of concentrating a considerable force on a narrow target, a joint or a precise point of the armour proved to be more effective in the fray. As much as the mace of arms and the archer’s axe, the war-hammer became a decisive melee weapon for the knight. The weapon, descended from the East-Roman akouphion, began to be used by armoured knights in the 14th century, due to the need to better the axe and the mace of arms with a piece of equipment capable of inflicting injuries through armour. It reached its full development only at the end of the 15th century, but its wide use in the 16th century is widely documented by archaeological artefacts and iconography, like the one representing the battle of Dreux, in an engraving of 1588 AD, one of the first clashes of the Wars of Religion in France, where knights are visible fighting on horseback with such weapons in their hands. The war hammer was often visible in tournaments, and, much like sword hilts, war hammers became richly decorated with etching and gilding, often appearing to be works of art. However, they never lost their primary function as dangerous weapons (Edge-Miles Paddock, 1988, p.149"). With the seventeenth century and the establishment of portable firearms (pistol and petronel) as weapons of the new heavy cavalry (Cuirassiers and Reiters) the war hammer disappeared from western battlefields. In Eastern Europe, its variants, such as the Polish nazdiak, remained in use among cavalry forces until the 18th century, when it finally fell into disuse along with the axe and mace, starting from the Napoleonic Wars, when the model of the horseman armed only with sabre and pistol became dominant.Fine condition.
