Photos British museum - opens collection - Seax time!

D

dirc

Joined
Jan 31, 2018
Messages
2,970
So, just recently the British museum has opened the entire collection online.
I can post these amazing hirez images, (it's all clear for non-commercial use under a creative commons 4 license now) here is some Seax joy

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=seax

look at this amazing one from the 6th century...
mid_MCS38601__2_.jpg


"Description: Iron seax; angled back, straight cutting edge. With a single piece of antler handle, incomplete. With two bags of fragments."

in case that is slow to load - (it seems their site is pretty laggy) - here is a copy on imagebin
5Kofy62M6IHf.jpg
 
Last edited:
and this amazing one:

Sittingbourne seax

Description
Iron seax, with a straight cutting edge and sharply angled back, the tang offset from the blade. One face of the blade was inset with eight decorative panels, but two are now missing. They are separated from each other by short, vertical strips of twisted silver and copper wire. The panels are inlaid with silver and niello, except for one, which is inlaid with brass. The triangular panel at the angle of the back contains a winged creature, the wing terminating in an acanthus leaf, and the body decorated with double nicks. Next to it is an oblong field with a symmetrical acanthus plant. The panels to the right of this are arranged in two rows of three narrow rectangular fields, but only one survives in the top row. It contains an undulating foliate scroll. The first panel of the second row is inscribed in Old English; the second, inlaid with brass. The last field is very worn, and contains an S-shaped animal, its body pierced by a strand. The panels are set above a long narrow strip with pendent silver triangles, which runs along the centre of the blade. It is composed of alternate rectangular panels of silver and brass, bordered by lengths of twisted copper and silver wire. The other face of the blade has a similar median strip, but here the rectangular panels are far more regular, creating a chequered effect. A second strip, also bordered by twisted polychrome wires, runs along the back of the blade. It is linked to the one below by two short lengths of twisted silver and copper wire. The panel thus created contains another Old English inscription, in letters of silver wire facing the back of the blade. The spine of the blade was also inlaid with twisted silver and copper wires, alternate silver and brass rectangular panels, and a triangular terminal of silver and copper wires at the angle of the blade. Much of this decoration is now missing.

5KomEBQtmwAy.jpg
 
dirc said:
Post any good ones back to this thread :) it will be nice to have more pics posted for everyone to see
Click to expand...

5 items found :), each as no available image :mad:
Oh, I entered khukuri as a searched item, nothing found but put Kukri :( and...lost interest!
 
Things like that obviously took a lot of time to make, but I guess that is what you can find in a society with no TV, internet, or cellphones.
 
I have always loved the simplicity of the seax. Did a spit in a vial DNA test and it must be genetic. 83% of me is either English or comes from a place in Germany that conquered England. Even the part of me that is German is Saxon.

Gorgeous collection there. Thanks for sharing.
 
dirc said:
oh, another one:

amazing runework : ) "Seax of Beagnoth"
5Koh9mPZQttG.jpg
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting. I'm actually going to try to find someone willing to try to do a replica of this one for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top