Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/101

 exactly the same composition of figures in the "Dance of Death" as is seen on the Vienna dagger (Fig. 837). We also reproduce three other dagger sheaths (Fig. 838A) from three rare original drawings by the same artist, preserved in the same museum, each a monument to the greatness of the master's sense of design. The engraving from Die Hochzeitstänzer, by Heinrich Aldegrever, also well illustrates the elaborate and rich dagger of this form (Fig. 843). A specimen in the Musée du Louvre (Fig. 839) is a dagger of the same type: this has the usual hilt seen on these Swiss daggers, a hilt almost of basilard form. The figure subject depicted upon the scabbard is the story of William Tell. Next is a type of dagger of somewhat similar form, but altogether more clumsy. This is the commoner German Landsknecht version of the more elegant Swiss type. This class of dagger we could illustrate in large numbers; for it is represented in nearly all public museums, especially on the Continent, and some excellent examples are to be seen in the Wallace Collection. They vary considerably in the quality of their workmanship. Often the material of their grip and pommel is wood inlaid with polished bone in the manner of the arquebus stocks. A specimen in the Keasby Collection (Fig. 840) is a good untouched example of German, probably Nuremberg, workmanship, and dates within the second quarter of the XVIth century. This same form of weapon, but quillonless, is our next example (Fig. 841), a carefully made dagger of the first quarter of the XVIth century, also probably of Nuremberg workmanship. This dagger is almost duplicated by a weapon that was found at Brook's Wharf, Thames Street, in 1866, and is now to be seen in the Guildhall Museum (Fig. 842). Except for the loss of its grip it is in a perfect state of preservation.

German or Swiss, about 1540. Musée du Louvre

Having pursued the study of daggers into the XVIth century we could