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Description: | Artist: Unknown; Date(s): circa 1530 - 1560; Classification(s): weapons, rapier, casting (process), sword, cast; Acquisition: bequeathed by Henderson, James Stewart, 1933-03-16 [HEN.M.214-1933]
Description: Rapier, with mark on the blade. Italian, possibly Venetian. Conical pommel, lobed into five sections, each section carved into a series of upward overlaps. There is a strong well-shaped collar at the base. Grip of wood, bound with cord and covered with leather, with steel collars at top and bottom cut with vague acanthus shapes. Between these are baluster-shaped strips of steel which fit into grooves cut vertically into the wood core of the grip. Kunckle-guard, sharply out-turned at the top where it terminates in the head of an open mouthed and crested dragon's head. Halfway down, a counter-guard (loop-guard) runs diagonally downward to join the inside quillon. Just below the point from which this guard springs, the knuckle-guard goes into the mouth of another dragon's head. Vertically recurved quillons of oval section, each ending in dragons' heads en suite with those on the knuckle-guard. Well-formed cusped ecussons, with rather crudely carved floral decoration. Two branches of flat oval section. From the end of the outside branch, a short straight counter-guard projects forward, also ending in a dragon's head. From the end of the inside branch, a second smaller loop-guard joins the root of the back of the outside quillon. Each of these loop-guards has the same form as the knuckle-guard. Back-guard of two bars, the one a loop from the root of the back of the outside quillon to the end of the inside branch, the outer a short vertical bar joining the other back-guard. The end of this bar is carved into the form of a hand this loop-guard. Back-edge blade with an ill-defined ricasso and two narrow fullers running just over half-way down to the point.
There is a mark stamped on the ricasso on each side and a second one on each side of the blade. | 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=mid-16th Century; start=1530; end=1560 | 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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