Prepare Yourselves for Armageddon: The 13th Sword Has Been Found!

We all knew it would happen at some point, and finally our wait is over: the thirteenth Fake Hercules Sword has finally surfaced!  What does that mean?  No-one really knows. But with this ominous omen and summer gas prices expected to plummet, it's probably as good a time as any to load your mini-van with weapons, stock up on canned goods, and head for your bunker.

News of Sword 13 (the Alejandro Sword) came to us via a comment by Alejandro on this blog post a few days ago while I was on vacation. Thankfully, alert citizen, Spanish speaker, and Friend of #Swordgate Pablo Raw followed up on Alejandro's comment and gathered information and photos about the sword.  Thanks to both Pablo and Alejandro - I owe you both a beer (if you've been keeping score at home, you'll know that I now owe Pablo two beers).

Here is a portion of Alejandro's account as he emailed it followed by Pablo's translation:

"Ésta espada en concreto, me refiero a la famosa espada ceremonial, si bien no era más que una mera reproducción, tenía cierto encanto. La adquirió en un viaje a Italia, en concreto a la ciudad de Pompeya. No puedo precisar si salió de la sección de souvenirs del Museo Arqueológico Nacional de Nápoles, de un vendedor ambulante, o de la misma ciudad Pompeya; pero puedo asegurar que las palabras literales de este buen amigo cuando me la obsequió fueron: “Ya tienes una espada de Pompeya”. De lo que no hay duda alguna es de que esta espada fue adquirida en Italia. Todo esto sucedió hace unos 20 años aproximadamente, la fecha exacta no puedo recordarla, pero aseguro con certeza que llegó a mis manos allá por 1996. Desde entonces luce entre mi colección."

"This specific sword, (I’m talking about  the ceremonial sword), it was clearly a reproduction, but  it  had a certain charm  to it. He got it on a trip to Italy, specifically in the city  of Pompeii. I can’t tell if it came out of the souvenirs store of the National Archaeological Museum of Napoli, a street vendor, or just somewhere in the city of Pompeii, but I can  tell that his literal words when he gave it to me where: “Now you  own  a  sword from Pompeii”. There is no  doubt  that  the sword was acquired in  Italy. All this  happened 20 years ago approximately, the exact date I can’t remember, but I can assure that I got it around 1996. Since then, it is part  of my collection."​

Here are some photos of Sword 13:

Composite illustration showing the front and back of Sword 13.

Hilt of Sword 13 (front).

Hilt of Sword 13 (back).

Sword 13 appears to be a copper alloy sword with a heavy artificial patina that has been worn from the high spots to expose the underlying brass (followers of this blog will remember how the self-proclaimed Commander of the world's best "professional treasure hunting" team misidentified the exposed brass on the Nova Scotia sword as gold). The Hercules figure preserves more detail than the cast iron Design Toscano swords, but appears crudely cast/finished with some prominent mold seams in the areas between the head and arms, some filled-in areas (e.g., to the left of the tail of Hercules' lion skin), and some pits that are not present on the Design Toscano sword (e.g., on the back of Hercules' head).

As far as the blade goes, I don't see any of the anomalies used to the define the Type J swords (i.e., the Nova Scotia Sword, the Italian eBay Sword, the Florida Sword, and the France Sword).  A side-by-side comparison of Sword 13 with the 3D model of the Italian eBay Sword suggests that the blade of Sword 13 is the shorter of the two.  The blade of Sword 13 appears to be shaped like the the blade of the Design Toscano sword, but lacks some of the distinctive characteristics of the Design Toscano example that I have in my office. 

Comparison of the Alejandro Sword (Sword 13; top) with 3D model of the Italian eBay sword (Sword 4; bottom).

Where does Sword 13 fit in the grand scheme of Fake Hercules Swords?  It looks to me at first glance as if it belongs pretty comfortably with what we're calling Type CS (which includes the Spain Sword, the Florida eBay Sword, and the Cvet Sword).  These are copper alloy swords with blades that are shorter than those of the Type J sword and lack the casting anomalies used to define Type J. I have yet to examine any of the Type CS swords first-hand.  

We have a purchase date and location for the Alejandro sword (1996, Pompeii) that fits pretty nicely with the purchase date and location reported for the Cvet Sword (2004, Pompeii). (Although we never got a good photo of the Benjamin Sword, purchased in 2005 in Pompeii, I suspect it is also a Type CS based on the apparent blade length.) We know that the Type F swords (California and Sonja) were for sale in the 1970's. And we know the Design Toscano swords are still being made today. I think the most reasonable hypothesis is that the Type J swords were probably produced sometime between the 1970's and 1990's, with the Alejandro Swords and the other Type CS swords being a later generation.  Maybe something like this:

That's just a hypothesis, of course, but one that I think it's consistent with everything we now know. As I wrote back in January, we would expect the hilt dimensions of the Type CS swords to be intermediate between those of the the Type J swords and the Design Toscano swords if Type CS really does fall between the two in a generational copy chain. I think the photos that Alejandro sent are good enough to derive some measurements that I can compare to those I have from other swords. I'll try to do that soon and provide an updated database.

Thanks again, Alejandro and Pablo. Nice work!