From its origins as a sharpened stick in the days of cave dwellers, the sword developed over the centuries into one of mankind's deadliest and most widely used weapons. This fascinating volume traces the development of the sword in 44 carefully researched, ready-to-colour drawings. Authentically costumed depictions of sword-wielders both famous and obscure include Queen Boadicea, King Charlemagne, a twelfth-century Muslim warrior, a Puritan of the seventeenth century, and many others.Detailed, informative captions accompany finely wrought illustrations of a Sumerian bronze sickle sword (3000 B.C.), an elaborate Babylonian iron sword (600 B.C.), a steel sword of the Chinese Han dynasty (200 B.C.), a Scottish ""Claymore"" sword (1500), a Spanish basket-hilt broad sword (1650), a pirate ""buccaneer"" cutlass (1700), a Confederate artillery officer's saber of the American Civil War period (1864), and 37 more.colouring book fans, students of weaponry, and armchair swashbucklers will all relish this rich pictorial history of the sword and its many variations.
