Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/361

 A most interesting sword hilt that has only recently come to light, a hilt of robust proportions, that may yet reveal its history, is worthy of examination; for from the heraldic evidence which it furnishes it must at one time have been the hilt of one of the civic swords of Coventry (Fig. 698). The medium is latten, formerly gilt, decorated with delicately engraved York roses alternating with King Edward IV's badge of the sun in splendour. The quillons are straight, the extreme ends curling downwards, as in the case of the second Hereford sword (see p. 327, Fig. 704). The pommel, which is also of very similar form to that of the second Hereford sword, is roughly heart-shaped in outline. It has inset on either side engraved silver plaques that have at one time been enamelled respectively with the arms of Coventry and those of England. These, as in the case of the Chester sword, are so placed that only when the sword is held point upwards are they seen in the correct position. Its proportions are certainly those of the fighting sword of the time; but the rather soft hilt medium of gilded latten lends additional weight to the theory of its having been made for purposes of ceremony.

[Illustration:

Given to the city by Sir John de Wells in 1431. It was formerly thought to have been given by a John Willis, Lord Mayor of London in 1506, but no such person held mayoral office in London at that date.

In an inventory of the insignia of office at Coventry made in 1704, there is mention of three swords and four scabbards—but the city now possesses only one sword and scabbard, to which we have referred. We may therefore consider that this newly discovered hilt is from one of the two swords that disappeared from Coventry after