Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/341



The dagger, like the rapier, is further enriched with oval plaques of mother-of-pearl, which are set in the hilt and down the face of the blade. The plaques in the pommel have engraved on them the following inscription:

The other mother-of-pearl plaques bear the letter H., the arms of Navarre, and the fleur-de-lis. The dagger is dated 1598. The inscriptions on the rapier in the Musée d'Artillerie are in French and in Latin; they describe the principal victories of the King before and after his ascension to the throne.

We next come to those late XVIth century swords which are German in provenance, and the enrichment of which is ascribed to Dresden craftsmen; their hilts are constructed on practically the same lines which those of the swords of the earlier part of the XVIth century follow. They form almost a family apart, and are to be seen in most of the arsenals of Germany and of the national collections of Europe, varying considerably in their actual make, but nearly all fashioned in the same way. Some excellent examples are in the Wallace Collection, but we prefer to select as our illustration (Fig. 1377) that of the fine example with its accompanying dagger which are to be seen in the Musée d'Artillerie of Paris (J 189). The pommel is octagonal and pear-shaped, the quillons are long and straight, swelling to terminations of similar form, but smaller than those of the pommel; each has double ring-guards and a pas-d'âne. In the example we choose, the whole hilt, as well as the upper portion of the blade, is deeply etched with musical trophies, etc., in the manner of the popular Saxon school. The weapon is a fine fighting sword, and of a form that leads by an easy transition to that of a family of swords or rapiers that again occupies quite a position by itself. We have alluded to the hilts of those weapons which were used in fighting on the principle of the rapier, and which, through the complication of their guards, lent such scope to the designer of the day. But throughout the XVIth century we find that the sword in use was the one which was equally serviceable for cutting or thrusting. This was, indeed, the sword of the soldiery;