FINE ITALIAN PILLOW SWORD

ITALY, c. 1640–1650

An extremely fine Italian pillow sword with Solingen-manufactured blade made by the master Johannis Aollich. The finely chiselled steel hilt is with entwined vine leaves and grapes. The bulbous style and quality of chiselling of our sword would probably place the manufacturing point of the hilt to Brescia, Italy. Brescian masters were famous for the best steel chiselling work during the 17th century.

The style of the grip reminds of the sword #643 depicted in Boccia & Coelho (1975). The blade signature of our sword Johannis Aollich seems to correspond with the famous 17th century swordsmith from Solingen (Johann Ollich). He’s known to have signed blades with several forms like Johann Allich, Joannes Aolligs and Hans Ollich. The Ollich family was very famous for swords and there were several family members involved in swordmaking during the mid 17th Century.

Provenance: American Private Collection

Price on request

• Overall length 104 cm
• Blade length 87 cm