Weapons of mass destruction have rendered the usual career paths for swashbucklers irrelevant, if not obsolete.
What is a poor swordsman (or woman) to do?
In the case of Maestro Ramón Martinez and Maestro de Armas Jeannette Acosta-Martinez, it was developing The Swordsman’s Shop as the e-commerce arm of their New York-based fencing school, the Martinez Academy of Arms (http://www.martinez-destreza.com).
The initial product offerings are 15 prints, reproductions of 18th and 19th century portraits of such fencing and dueling legends as Henry Angelo and the Chevalier de St. George and illustrations of famous duels and battles from the 16th to 19th centuries. Two of the prints feature the Chevalier d’Eon, a great swordsman who preferred to duel in drag.
The reproductions cost $19.95 each, are printed on archival art paper and can be ordered with appropriately sized mats. The selection is drawn from the school’s collection of rare and unusual fencing and dueling memorabilia.
Acosta-Martinez, who also functions as the business manager for the school, explained that the core marketing for the prints is identical to the core marketing for the Martinez Academy. The school relies on search engines to find them for prospective students and print buyers. However, the availability of the prints was posted on a variety of groups, Web sites, and mailing lists by Jared Kirby, an instructor at the Academy.
Acosta-Martinez sees the bulk of the customers for the prints as from the fencing community, which includes sports and recreational fencing as well as tradition or historical fencing and stunt teams. However, she does rule out expanding outside of that niche.
“It depends how much appeal there is for fencing prints outside the community,” she said.
The site started up a few weeks ago. Acosta-Martinez plans to add more prints as well as books, written by herself or others at the academy. Kirby’s post stated that The Swordsman’s Shop wants to know what prints fencers want to buy.
For copyright reasons, Acosta-Martinez plans to stick to older prints originals of which the school owns. The books offered – both current and planned – are written, edited or annotated by Acosta-Martinez.
Legal questions make The Swordsman’s Shop hesitate to offer weapons or fencing equipment on its site. Nevertheless, Acosta-Martinez is looking into offering antique 19th century weapons as well as producing a collections guide to such collecti
