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Hunting Sword and Scabbard

hilt, ca. 1700; blade, ca. 1700–1725
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 376
The European taste for Asian designs and materials was particularly strong in the early eighteenth century. European-style sword hilts made of shakudō, an alloy of copper and gold that was popular in Japan for sword fittings, appear to have been made at Deshima for the Dutch East India Company, which exported them to Holland to be fitted out with European blades.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Hunting Sword and Scabbard
  • Date: hilt, ca. 1700; blade, ca. 1700–1725
  • Culture: hilt, Japanese, made for the European market
  • Medium: Steel, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), gold, wood, ray skin
  • Classification: Swords
  • Credit Line: Gift of Jean Jacques Reubell, in memory of his mother, Julia C. Coster, and of his wife, Adeline E. Post, both of New York City, 1926
  • Object Number: 26.145.260a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Arms and Armor

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