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Encyclopaedia of the North East

B - Baltic to broadsword

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A large, printed capital letter B with swords, a silver cup and a small metal staff.

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Staff. A gold-coloured staff about half a metre long, with silver ends and a copper band in the middle.

The Marischal Staff of Scotland, sent from Potsdam by the Earl Marischal to his old college after his involvement in the Jacobite risings of 1715-19.

ABDUA:17612

Communion cup. Large silver cup with straight sides, engraved with a figure with long hair wearing only a cloak and holding a bird on one arm, surrounded by decorative scrolls and grotesque faces, and inscribed ANDREAS THOMSONUS, SCOTO-BORUSSUS, COLL: REG: ABERD:, IBID: EDUCAT, DONO DEDIT, 1643.

Silver communion beaker, made in Danzig (Gdansk) and used at Kings College.

ABDUA:36869

Baltic n a sea that divides Northern Europe from Scandinavia. Hence the lands around its coasts. 
The North East has ancient links with the Baltic lands. In the Bronze Age, amber from the North German coasts was being used by the leading members of North East society. By the mediaeval period many merchants from the North East were making their fortune trading timer, wool and salmon between Scotland and the Baltic. These links continue, though now it is the products of Polish coal mines, German engineering materials or even academic exchanges that form the basis for contact.

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Claymore. A sword almost a metre and a half long, with a squarish handle covered in leather decorated with bands of horizontal lines, a ridged cylindrical pommel, a cross guard terminating in diamond shaped loops at each end, and large oval shaped guards on both sides of the handle.

Shell guard claymore from Castle Coull, Contin, Ross-shire (early 17th cent).

ABDUA:18058

Basket hilted swords. Three steel swords with grooved blades about a metre long, with ornate baskets around the handle decorated with hearts and punched holes.

Basket hilted swords (17th to 18th cent.)

left: ABDUA:18062

middle: ABDUA:18068

right: ABDUA:10015

Claymore. A sword almost a metre and a half long, with a handle covered in leather and wrapped decoratively with cord in a series of X shapes, a large round pommel and a simple cross guard with loops extending perpendicular to the handle.

Ring guard claymore from Tolquhon, Aberdeenshire (late 16th cent).

ABDUA:18057

broadsword n the Highlanders' large two-edged sword; also the basket-hilted single-edged broad-sword 18c-;the claymore. [Gael claidheamh a sword + mor great] 

the ingentes gladii of the Caledonians, mentioned by Tacitus. The same kind of sword was preserved in the highlands to this present age: but the enormous length of the weapon has been found useless against the firmness of determined troops, from the Battle of Mons Grampius, to the recent victory of Culloden. The short swords of the forces of Agricola and the bayonets of the British regulars, were equally superior.
Thomas Pennant 1774 'A Tour In Scotland.

B - Baltic to broadsword