- Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 25th August 2014
A very rare colour version of artist Percy Macquoid’s Exercise With The Double-Handed Sword, part of his Types of Old Swordsmanship series for The Graphic newspaper, dating to 1894.
The swordsmen who posed for these pictures were members of the historical fencing club established by Captain Alfred Hutton at the London Rifle Brigade’s School of Arms. In 1900 Hutton became both an instructor at, and a Committee Member of E.W. Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu Club and several of his senior students became members of the Club.
For more on this subject, see Ancient Swordplay: The Revival of Elizabethan Fencing in Victorian London.