id:			99441
accession number:	1919.1014
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1919.1014
updated:		2023-03-20 10:11:46.565000

Single-Edged Knife (Scramasax), 600s. Frankish, Champagne(?), Migration period, 7th century. Iron, copper, and gold foil; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1919.1014

title:				Single-Edged Knife (Scramasax)
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			600s
creation date earliest:		600
creation date latest:		699
current location:		106A Migration Period & Coptic
creditline:			Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
copyright:			

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culture:	Frankish, Champagne(?), Migration period, 7th century
technique:	iron, copper, and gold foil
department:	Medieval Art
collection:	MED - Migration Period
type:		Arms and Armor
find spot:	Said to have been found at Croanne (Champagne)
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: 
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	guard decorated with two bands of gold filigree between which is a thin band of plain gold with an embossed inscription.
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	(Paul Mallon, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art).
	date: ?-1919
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 1919-
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact:
Known as a s<em>cramasax, s</em>eax means knife in Old English.

digital description:


wall description:
The scramasax, a single-edged knife, was a general purpose implement. It could serve equally well as a tool or as a weapon and generally did not exceed 12 inches in length. As with most objects of the Migration period, iron weapons survive as excavated grave goods and tend to be heavily corroded. The grips, now missing, were probably fashioned from wood or bone and silver inlay decorated the pommels (the knob on the hilt, or handle). The ornamental gold foil bands, perhaps from the original scabbards (the cases in which the blades of swords or daggers are kept) have survived relatively intact.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Fliegel, Stephen N. <em>Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. </em>[Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
	page number: 	p. 37
	url:		

	Effros, Bonnie "Art of the 'Dark Ages:' Showing Merovingian artifacts in North American public and private collections." <em>Journal of the History of Collections</em> 17 no. I (2005).
	page number: 	pp. 85-113, fig. 17
	url:		

	Fliegel, Stephen N. <em>Arms &amp; Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.
	page number: 	p. 47
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1919.1014/1919.1014_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1919.1014/1919.1014_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1919.1014/1919.1014_full.tif