Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/90

 the famous Colonel Blood, who attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower in 1670, was of the same pattern. Before finally leaving these English wooden-hilted daggers, we will mention a slightly different type, a good many examples of which are still extant. This is a dagger, in use during the XVIIth century, in the case of which the general formation of the wooden grip without a pommel remains the same, while the original kidney formations have been transferred from the base of the grip to the ends of the short quillons. These bastard dagger knives are usually back-edged and often serrated at the back and furnished with a reinforced point. As often as not, their original leather scabbards are found with them. We give an illustration of one from the collection of Mr. S. Willson (Fig. 822a). Here the grip is of ebony, whilst two spheroidal forms carved in the same medium are placed at the end of the quillons. This dagger knife has its original scabbard, into which are inserted auxiliary knives. Its period is within the first quarter of the XVIIth century. The next five illustrations show the disappearance of the lobes from the quillons. The first three (Figs. 822b, c, d), represent three daggers in the collection of Mr. Seymour Lucas, R.A., two of which were found in a cottage at Gloucester, while the third, which has a slightly curved blade, bears the inscription:, and is dated 1626. The next dagger and sheath (Fig. 822e), in the collection of Mr. H. G. Radford, bears the date 1628, while the last is from His Majesty's Collection at Windsor Castle (Fig. 822f). In the case of the four weapons last mentioned it will be noted that even the suggestion of the spheroidal formation on the quillons has quite disappeared—the only trace of family connection being in the shape of the grip. It is the present writer's belief that these daggers were in use as late as the time of Charles II, and that they were only made and used in England.

THE FOURTH TYPE OF DAGGER—VARIETIES OF THE "EAR" POMMEL ORDER

We now come to the fourth type of dagger, a dagger which is guardless save for a metal moulding inserted above the blade. It is known as the "ear" dagger, in France as the dague à oreilles, in Italy as alla Levantina; the first two names being derived from the two characteristic flattened disks that issue from either side of the pommel cap at an obtuse angle to the line of the grip, and resemble ears. There is little doubt that the origin of this form of hilt is