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Description: | Artist: Unknown; Date(s): circa 1580 - 1620; Classification(s): weapons, rapier, casting (process), sword, cast, with blued hilt and chiselled decoration; Acquisition: bequeathed by Henderson, James Stewart, 1933-03-16, J.S. Henderson Bequest [HEN.M.217-1933]
Description: Rapier. Large, tall barrel-shaped pommel, oval in plan, with a well-shaped button. Knuckle-guard, loop-guard, double ring-guards. Branches and single rear quillon, all of a broad ribbon-section. The knuckle-guard terminates against the side of the pommel with a large open ring; at the midpoint it swells to a balustic-shaped feature below which is a flat disc, below which again the lower part of the guard swells to a second balustic-shape; thus the disc id clasped between these two elements. At this point the loop-guard in front of the hilt and the back-guard at the back spring out. Each of the ring-guards show the same feature of a flat disc clasped between the two balustic-like elements. The lower ring encloses an elegantly pierced plate. There is a flat, rectangular ecusson from the lower edge of which springs a short triangular element. The single rear quillon turns strongly towards the blade and terminates, slightly curled inward, in a disc. Each of these discs on the guards and quillon is decorated with a neatly chiselled double-trefoil rose pattern while each of the enclosing balustic forms has, similarly chiselled, a long acanthus leaf. The same motifs, in a diamond shape, are repeated on the pommel. These decorations only appear on the outside of the gilt, the inside being quite plain. The grip is of oval section, bound in a most complex manner with strands of thick and thin twisted wire. The back-guards are of three elements. The hilt retains all of its original blue colour. Long narrow blade of flat diamond section; at the forte, three well-marked fullers, the middle on extruding halfway down toward the point. The stout ricasso, a little narrower than the blade, has its faces slightly dished. In the middle of each face of the ricasso is a stamped, very clear maker's mark, a fleur-de-lis ensigned with a crown within an ecusson.
Norman hilt type 57. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/terms.htm | Publisher: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Rights holder: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Subjects: | rapier Unknown weapons | Temporal: | name=16th/17th century; start=1580; end=1620 | Source: | Fitzwilliam Museum | Creator: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Identifier: | http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opacdire... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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