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North Italian, late XVth century

Musée de Louvre

design suggested upon it by a few deft lines; whereas at the top the subjects are elaborately embossed and worked to the highest degree of perfection. From the Caesar Borgia sword we turn to one which is assuredly the work of the same hand, somewhat less rich in its decoration but none the less beautiful, we mean the Pucci sword (Fig. 650). Here the quillons have a similar formation, but are a little less depressed; the pommel is similar both in size and in shape. The grip is now of the same type, and the blade is of precisely similar make, although unhappily some few inches of its original length have been ground away. The slight difference that exists between the two swords extends indeed no farther than the matter of their enrichment. The pommel of the Pucci sword is bronze gilt, cast with a Renaissance arrangement of formal leafage that, were it found upon a piece of oak furniture in England, would be known as Holbeinesque in style. The grip is of wood now overlaid with plates of silver; while the quillons are of simple iron, gilt. The blade is superb, finer indeed than that of the Caesar Borgia sword; it is graven and gilt in the same manner, with compositions of figures and with a coat of arms, which curiously enough is not that of the Pucci family, and which up to the present has not been identified. This sword, which has now passed into an English collection, was in the possession of the Pucci family until late in the XIXth century. The last time it was used at a public ceremony was on the occasion of a festival procession organized to celebrate the opening of the new façade of the Duomo of Florence in 1888. It then suffered from some rather rough handling, from which it required time and careful attention to recover. Next we will mention three beautiful late XVth century Italian weapons, respectively in the Beaumont Collection, Musée de Cluny (Fig. 651), in the collection of the Baron de Cosson (Fig. 652), and in the collection of Mr. Felix Joubert (Fig. 653), which, if they are not actually the work of the same swordsmith are, at any rate, of the same family of swords. Of the cruciform-hilted Italian swords of the Renaissance type there are very many varieties in shape; but after those just described none possibly are more beautiful than that particular group of which the example in the Louvre is a very representative specimen (Fig. 654). Here the formation of the quillons and of the grip is