Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/212

 page 47, Fig. 55) there is the weapon known as "The Sword of Wenceslaus" (Fig. 170, a, b, c). We have previously recorded that St. Wenceslaus died in the year 935, so that, like most other swords accredited to great personages of the past, we are reluctantly obliged to disconnect this most typical early XIVth century weapon with his name unless we accept it as an early XIVth century substitute for the original sword that may once have existed. The length of the present sword from the point to the top of the pommel is 37 inches; the blade, straight and double-edged, is reputed to be of Oriental origin, and is forged from very elastic steel. It has a central groove, tapering towards the point, whilst near the hilt it has been pierced at a later date with a cruciform opening. The tang is drawn out in the usual manner, and passes through the quillons, grip, and pommel. The grip is wound with brown felt-like substance, covered with a strong yellow tissue, woven with a conventional foliage design. The quillons are straight, rounded at their edges, and tapering at either end. The pommel is of the wheel type, and fashioned of rock crystal, that portion of the tang of the blade which passes through it being wound with red silk. At the top of the pommel there is a five-leaf silver rosette, from which issues a small ring. Rock crystal and other hard stones were no very uncommon medium for sword pommels of the XIVth century, though now rarely met with. In the present writer's collection is a wheel pommel fashioned of rock crystal and of this period (Fig. 171, c). We are cognisant of other examples in private collections, including a wheel pommel of Egyptian porphyry. In the British Museum are two XIVth century wheel pommels carved from jasper (Fig. 171, a, b). The blade of the St. Wenceslaus sword might be as old as the XIIth or early part of the XIIIth century, but the hilt was probably substituted for one of earlier date in the early years of the XIVth century. To this sword there was formerly a golden scabbard, adorned with pearls and precious stones. This to-day is non-existent, though the Cathedral Treasury still possesses three other scabbards fitted to the sword.

(a) A scabbard made of wood covered with eel skin, its lower end provided with a plain copper chape.cvm vagina avrea et gemmis et perlis." In the inventory of 1368 and 1372: "item gladivs ipsivs cvm vagina, qvae in parte est fracta, avro, gemmis et perlis." The inventory of 1387 has "item gladivs ipsivs cvm vagina, qvae in parte inferiori est fracta, gemmis et perlis ornata."]