Lot 819

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Description:

A fascinating melee weapon with an unusually long service history, a Hungarian "fokos", or "shepherd's axe", with a 23 ¼" wood shaft and a steel head measuring 5 ¾" from blade to poll, the face of which bears nine flattened pyramidal points, in the style of a modern meat tenderizer. One side bears the deeply-stamped mark of the Kingdom of Hungary, possibly indicating some ceremonial use. The weapon overall is believed to have been crafted in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. Despite this early date, the blade bears several interesting electropenciled inscriptions. The right-hand side is inscribed with the name "D. Duursma [or Duuzma] Lt. Ing. Modling", indicating that he was anEngineers Lieutenant with some connection to the military academy at Modling. Adjacent to this appears the date "20/4 1917 [April 20, 1917]", possibly a graduation date from the academy, within an electropenciled wreath. The opposite side of the blade is inscribed "40 H.I.T.D. 30 & 29 H.I.R. 1915 a/d Ikwa". This refers to the 40th "Honved-Infantrie-Truppen-Division", the 30th and 29th Honved-Infantrie Regiments of the Hungarian Landwehr, and to the campaign against the Russians on the Ikwa river in 1915. The head is affixed to the shaft by two copper straps, one bearing the electropencil number "191714". The head is slightly loose, and shows slight pots of oxidation, and the shaft shows signs of having once been fitted with longer straps, else very good. Axes such as this were utilized as tool by some nineteenth-century regiments of Hungarian infantry, and as symbols of authority by mining inspectors, and it is possible that this example was carried in the same capacity during the war. This particular weapon is illustrated and well-described in an article entitled "A Seventeenth-Century Streitaxt With a Great War History", by Prof. Paul L. Holmer, published in the Winter 1979 issue of "Kaiserzeit", the journal of the Imperial German Military Collectors Association, vol. VIII, no. 4, present with the axe.

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November 14, 2018 10:00 AM EST
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $499 $20
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000