Officer's 'mortuary' sword, 1650 (c)

With hilt decorated with human heads and leaf-like decoration.

Mortuary swords were usually carried by officers on both sides during the English Civil War. Although some swords have crude representations of King Charles I on the hand guards, these were made before his execution and were emblems rather than memorials for a dead monarch. Many other swords were decorated with grotesque designs popular at the time.