Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/76

 and at the pommel edge in a simple cap upon which the blade tang is riveted. Of this ordinary class, the favourite medium for the hilt was ivy root, which is very durable, and from the very closeness of its grain less liable to split than most woods. Even to-day, when such daggers are discovered in water-courses, the wooden grip is often found in position, though necessarily much decayed.

The strange formation of the hilt of the "kidney" dagger has been the subject of considerable controversy. Circular in section at the pommel, it diminishes in size to the smallest circumference at the base of the grip, from which on either side issue two globular forms, more or less accentuated according to the fancy of the maker. These rest upon the metal plate, which is generally at the base of the hilt; though we have seen specimens of the "kidney" dagger which lack metal additions of any kind. As the dagger was worn immediately in front of the girdle, it has been suggested that the formation of the hilt has a phallic signification; indeed, it is sometimes referred to by contemporaries as the "ballock knife."

The illustrations we give of the "kidney" daggers we will roughly class together under their periods. Perhaps one of the earliest with which we are acquainted is an example in the Dino Collection, Metropolitan Museum of New York (Fig. 795). Here it will be noted that the kidney forms immediately above the small metal quillon are very developed. In the same collection are two other daggers of this type, both of which can be safely dated as coming within the first half of the XVth century. One (Fig. 796) has small flattened quillons drooping strongly over the blade; while the other (Fig. 797) is more elegantly modelled as regards the formation of the grip, the blade being multi-sectioned. The Tower of London can show no example of the "kidney" dagger; but the Wallace Collection possesses in No. 113 a good and complete dagger with scabbard. This must, however, be assigned to the closing years of the first half of the XVth century (Fig. 798). The London Museum exhibits a well made, if somewhat crude and incomplete, example, which is essentially of the English type. It was found in Horseferry Road, Westminster (Fig. 799). Of this type many specimens of varying proportions exist: they have been discovered from time to time by workmen engaged in digging the foundations of buildings, or they have been dredged up from the Thames. In our own collection is a large and strong example belonging to the third quarter of the XVth century, which was found in the Thames at Westminster (Fig. 800). This is almost duplicated by another, also found in London, and now in the Guildhall Museum (Fig. 801); while