Goldener Degen

The gold sword made for Emperor Maximilian II is a highlight of sixteenthcentury Spanish goldsmithing work. The surface of the hilt seems to dissolve into detailed, three-dimensionally worked ornaments with green, blue, red, black, and white enamel highlights. The sword can be disassembled and stored in a now lost box, which helped protect the fragile enamel. The hilt may perhaps be attributed to Pere Juan Pockh, a goldsmith active in Barcelona. Pockh subsequently produced similar ceremonial swords for Maximilian, including the one the emperor presented to August, Elector of Saxony, that is now in Dresden. Pockh also worked for Maximilian’s consort, Mary.

Note the mark of Antonio Piccinino, a swordsmith active in Milan, on the ricasso, the unsharpened length of blade just below the guard. He also signed the blade: ANTONIO PICCININO.

The sword now in Vienna may be identical with the one ‘made of gold and enamel in the Spanish manner’ (von ledigem golt schen geschmelzter Spanischer arbat) listed in the 1554 inventory of the garderobe of Maximilian II, which ‘Lord Pernstein had presented to His Royal Highness’ (der von Pernstein ier khgl. würd verert). Shortly afterwards, on 5 October 1554, ‘His Majesty presented it to Archduke Ferdinand’ (durch ir khgl. würd selb dem erzherzog Ferdinandt verert worden). The Bohemian nobleman Vladislav II of Pernstein was a childhood friend of Maximilian and had accompanied him on journeys to the Low Countries and to Spain. He may have presented the Habsburg with this sword at Genoa in 1552, where Maximilian (crowned King of Bohemia that year) had gone ashore on his way back from Spain.