The Effigy of Jean d'Alluye

[Sir Douglas]

That's an interesting sword you have there, fella:

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/objects-of-intrigue-the-tomb-effigy-of-jean-d-alluye/

[Sir Edward]

Those are some nice close-ups too. Cool.

[Sir William]

The sword seems more closely linked to the tri-lobed Viking style hilted swords of the 9th - 11th centuries than a Chinese one; seeing as d'Alluye was a French crusader, he could very well have wielded an older family sword.  Unless there are other pictures, I didn't see anything to suggest that the sword, seeing as it is shown in-scabbard, was anything other than a European style blade with an antiquated hilt.  Plus we must keep in mind that these are images as rendered by an artisan of the time and, at least in my view, are subject to some artistic interpretation.

[Sir James A]

Seconded on Viking style. Most of it is hidden behind the shield. It doesn't jump out as Chinese to me.

[Sir Douglas]

Whatever it is, it's still interesting.

To me, the pommel almost looks like a fleur-de-lis design. It's the crossguard that I find interesting. I don't think I've ever seen one of that period swept so far downward and in that fashion. But then, I'm more of an armor guy than a sword guy. Plus, we don't know how much of the guard is hidden under that little scabbard flap (I'm sure it has a name); it might not sweep down as far as it appears. Actually, on closer inspection, it looks like it's a continuation of a flower motif. A custom design, perhaps?

But yeah, the article does say a "very un European blade" but I don't particularly see anything special about it. You can't even see the blade, even in other pictures it doesn't seem to stick out from under the shield anywhere. It is a rather nice effigy, though.

But I guess we'll never know how much is accurate, how much is artistic style. Shame we don't have the actual sword. It was probably just a rather ornate sword as opposed to something foreign.