Morning Star (Morgenstern), Swiss or German, 17th C

Description

The morning star, or Morgenstern in German, was a widely used peasant weapon from
Medieval times up to the early 1800’s. They were easy and cheap to manufacture, but
very wicked-looking lethal weapons. It is essentially a long wooden club with a larger head
bearing a number of iron spikes. This example, recently obtained in Germany, is of typical
form hand-hewn from one piece of wood approximately 2″ in diameter and narrowing to
about 1 ½” for the handle. The head is studded with 4 evenly spaced rows of five 1″- 1
1/4″ long square-section spikes. At the end of the wooden head is an iron ferrule to
prevent splitting (slightly loose from wood shrinkage) and a 10 1/4″ long square-section
thrusting spike. Wood is 58″ long with scattered worming, but sound. Iron parts with age
patina and rust marking. Overall length 68 1/4″.