Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/306



North Italian, third quarter of the XVIth century. J 112, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

Probably German, third quarter of the XVIth century Wallace Collection (Laking Catalogue, No. 199)

this sword not suffered from certain rust oxidizations, it would, in our opinion, have excelled even the Vienna sword as an example of the magnificence of the work of the late Renaissance. There are among the treasures of the Wallace Collection two fine curved swords of this same epoch, one of which (No. 193) is especially reminiscent of those two we have just described though, generally speaking, of smaller proportions. The hilt is of blackened iron with a flattened pear-shaped pommel, and quillons curving in opposite directions. Both the pommel and quillon ends are chiselled in high relief and pierced with crouching nude figures holding scrolls on which rest ducal