Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/57



English, late XIVth century Found in the Thames, Westminster London Museum

English, late XLVth century. Found in Kingsway, London London Museum

century (Fig. 757). Mr. Henry G. Keasby was fortunate in procuring this rare dagger for his collection. The next dagger illustrated (Fig. 758, a, b), which was dug up in London, and is now in the Guildhall Museum, is practically a similar weapon, and, in our opinion, is the work of the same hand that produced the dagger just alluded to. Down the sides of the grip are gilt latten bands engraved with figures of saints, which, like those seen on the Duston dagger, have been enamelled. The Guildhall dagger is more complete, possessing the plaques of latten attached by two rivets to either face of the blade tang. These are enriched with strips of silver bearing the inscription ; the inscription, which appears to be stamped, is divided by the rosette heads of the rivets. The grip plaques are in one with the flattened hemispherical plates that cover the pommel, which is secured in position by a central rivet, the large washer of which on either side is a sexfoil rosette. The pommel plates are deeply channelled in a cruciform manner and inlaid with strips of silver stamped with inscriptions in a similar way to those seen on the grip plaques. Whatever form of guard the dagger originally possessed is now missing, though the long tubular rivet that held it in position is still extant. We suspect that it never possessed a quillon form of guard, but that the hilt finished at the juncture with the blade in some moulded form as seen on the later "ear" pommel daggers. The blade is long, slender, and back-edged, and when found was bent in the centre almost to a right angle. It is to be regretted that the locality in London where this dagger was found is not recorded; for in the present writer's