Cleveland Museum of Art

Pillow Sword

Date

c. 1650

Medium

steel, pierced; leather and wood

Culture

Italy, 17th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The "pillow-sword" is so-named because of where it was kept. A sword like this one, with a straight blade and relatively simple hilt, would have been suspended above a headboard within arm's reach for bedside defense should an intruder attack while the household was asleep and vulnerable.

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