After a fairly grueling struggle through The Only Cure (360; 1.2 patch) I found myself listening to Peryite thank me for killing Orchendor, then sending me on my way ---
but with no mention of the Spellbreaker!

I looked in my inventory: no Spellbreaker.

I talked again with Kesh the Clean -- but he had no dialogue options about the Spellbreaker.

Is this a known glitch? Has it been mentioned before? Or is it collateral damage caused by the recent patch?

What a disappointing feeling. I did everything right -- but the game did not do right by me.

The Spellbreaker is supposed to be "as impressive as it is unique" according to the official guide to Skyrim.

did you choose all the dialogue options before leaving the conversation?

Yes, i did -- with one exception: there was a line about not wanting to be a puppet...
(a sentence that I did not think appropriate, given that there was no ongoing relationship:
i had fulfilled the task, and Peryite congratulated me.

I would hate to think that not uttering one particular line of dialogue ruins the entire mission.

I would like to know if anyone else completed this quest and did not get the Spellbreaker.
I suppose one has also to ask if they completed the mission prior to the new PatchI I

I did a search of these forums under Spellbreaker -- there were numerous entries from the past --
but nobody mentioned not getting this ward-generating shield at the end of the mission when they played it.

OK -- i reloaded the save prior to the end.

This time I made a point of clicking all four of the dialogue options.

Once again Peryite thanked me for doing his bidding.

The notification appears: "Completed: The Only Cure"

But no Spellbreaker!!

I am trying to find someone who can shed light on this -- especially whether it is linked to the new Patch (which would mean finding someone
else who has recently completed the Quest and who did or did not receive the daedric artifact.)

Apparently one has to say: all's well that ends well.

White it is true that there was no indication, during the final stages of "The Only Cure" that Spellbreaker had been added to my inventory,
during either playthrough, I did find it there under "Apparel" about an hour later.

I did this quest few hours again for my new char, and I got the spellbreaker instantly when the dialogue started.