A general look at handheld objects

[Koen G]

Marco:
It's a good idea to focus on this subset first, the outstretched arm. I agree that the pose seems important. What I wonder though, is whether the pose and the item "belong together" or not. There are a number of options:

1. The pose corresponds to the way the item is used or held. It's like a picture of a person using this item.
   
2. The pose is a convention, without necessarily corresponding to reality.
   
3. The pose and the item add meaning separately. The item, irrelevant of the pose, tells us something and the pose tells us something else. They are separate parts of a visual "code".
   
4. ???
   

And what would you make of the examples below?



On top we see the same item (though without the top spike) being held in the other hand, while the pose remains the same. I'm not sure if the word is supposed to have come in its stead or it is just a confusingly positioned label. That would make it even stranger.

The bottom two images (from archer page) show on the left that the arm can be extended to the back as well, and to the right that a star can also be held in this pose. These poses are relatively rare compared to the bent arm ones, and might be significant.