Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/137

 varied were the designs of the mace heads. Curiously cut mouldings and figures of monsters adorned the outline of the flanges of the head, or as they were called in the XVth century Italian inventories the costa; while the richest inlays of gold were employed to decorate the surface. In the chapter concerned with the enriched pole arms of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries we shall include certain maces of this class.

The next illustration we give—that of the beautiful mace in the collection of Viscount Astor, Hever Castle (Fig. 885)—may at first sight seem to be one which should be included among those which are described in the chapter to which we have just referred. We feel justified, however, in presenting it in this section of the work by reason of the fact that while the effect of the general scheme is undoubtedly due to the splendidly designed compositions of amorini and arabesques that occupy the whole surface, all finely damascened in gold, the armourer has so fashioned the weapon that the true severe simplicity of XVth century form is scrupulously retained. It is North Italian work and may be assigned to a date within the first quarter of the XVIth century.

We will once more refer to the war-hammer, this time dealing with the form it took when it constituted the principal weapon of the unmounted knight. As such it developed into a pole arm fully five feet long, equipped at either end with a spike, "'fort pointue dessous et dessus'." The head consisted of either an axe-blade in conjunction with the beak, or of the beak in conjunction with a hammer-head. The latter combination was known as the mail-rond or maillet; while the powerful beak is recognizable under the heading of the bec de faucon, or the bec de corbyn. An equivalent but less knightly weapon of this class must have been the "Ravynbill" axe mentioned in the papers of the town of Kendal as late as 1575; though we are inclined to think that the haft of this weapon was considerably shorter. We illustrate two fine pole-axes in the Wallace Collection, Nos. 23 and 54 (Figs. 886 and 887). Our first picture shows us a head forged entirely from one piece of metal, a weapon that dates within the first half of the XVth century. Our second represents a pole-axe, the head of which is composed of two parts. The first of these consists in a triangular blade with straight cutting edge, from the opposite side of which issues a strong oblong hammer-head, the mail-rond, with four rows of dentated projections; the second part takes the form of a robust four-sided spike, the socket of which fits over the centre of the blade and hammer, and terminates in a short strap finished with a shell