I’ve looked all over the net and can’t find an exact match to this sword. Does anyone have an idea of what the grip looked like in its prime?

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Look at this website - http://www.bronze-age-craft.com/

Yup, what he said, specifically the "Swords for Sale" page of that site. Neil makes the BEST swords! I've got a couple of his on my own site, plus a couple from other sources:

http://www.larp.com/hoplite/BAweapons.html

Jeroen Zuiderwijk has hilted twice as many swords as I have, so definitely look at his page, too:

http://1500bc.com/bronzeage/index_eng.html

Heck, Neil and Jeroen taught me most of what I know about bronze swords! They are the giants on this subject.

Now, the sword you have isn't exactly the Ewart Park style and it isn't a Naue II, but the hilt is probably going to be about the same as those anyway.

Good luck!

Matthew

Thanks, it’s strange that no one had an Italian reproduction. The end of the Italian sword doesn’t end flat but tapers inwards towards the center, I wonder if the grip looked like the others and was covered it up or was it curved to reflect the tapering. But either way after seeing the others, I have a good idea of what it probably looked like.

Now here’s another question. The grip around mine has a groove running around it. Was the wooden grip beveled at the edges so the wood would slide inside or did they rivet the wood straight on so the groove would push down into the wood? Don’t know if you could help with that one but thanks anyway.

My knowledge of Italian bronze age swords is pretty much nil. However, the grip is very similar to the rest of the European swords, so like Matthew said, the construction would have been similar. The pommel shape can be very different though. There's only one example that I know of of an Italian sword with hilt preserved. It's a somewhat different sword, possibly later then yours (1000-800BC, yours I'd estimate a few hundred years earlier). It has an ivory hilt and pommel. In this case, the hilt plates are laid within the flanges of the hilt, not covering them. Here's some images:

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Notice that this sword has and extension on the hilt, which protrudes through the back of the pommel. In your case the pommel would have been attached to extensions of the hilt plates, instead of metal part of the hilt, and probably glued in place. That is, if it followed the same hilt assembly of the British Ewart Park swords, which doesn't necessarily have to be the case.

This answers exactly what I was trying to figure out.

I also noticed that the grip is sets inside the raised ridge of the sword.

I browsed all over the net and couln't find anything.

Roger, Matthew, Jeroen, the first round is on me.

"It has an ivory hilt and pommel"

That’s ivory not wood? Looking at the condition of the blade I doubt that wood would have survived but I just want to make sure. If it is ivory then it faded and chipped a bit.

The sword sure would have looked sweet in its youth, white grip, bronze blade.

Matthew, I like your website I've been looking at it off and on for the last couple of years.

Jeroen, are those personal pictures you took or a link pointing to a museum? If they are from the web, any chance of getting the link?

When I display the sword, I was thinking of having a hilt made and setting it next to it. Do either one of you or do you know anyone that makes hilts, either ivory or bone, from measurements?

If anyone hears of someone making Italian bronze swords please let me know.

Thanks again.