Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/363

 Çayas as payment for a dagger with a hilt, and sheath of steel worked in damascene, 112 I X."

A dagger enriched by this gold damascener is now to be seen in the Royal Historical Museum of Dresden. It is described in the ''Führer durch das Königliche Historisches Museum zu Dresden von M. von Ehrenthal'' (Dresden, 1899) as follows: "Dagger with its sheath; the hilt and the guard are damascened in gold, the blade has the following inscription:—, and the signature of the damascener, ," which leads to the supposition that it is the actual dagger referred to in the record of the private expenses of François I^{er}. The mace which we have just described was found in a country house in the north of Spain. It was discovered by Don José de Argaiz, a well-known Madrid collector of arms, who died some years ago. Afterwards it passed into Spitzer's Collection. Since the second inscription upon it is known to have been a motto used by Henri II of France before his accession to the throne, there is reason to believe that this mace was once his property; it would be difficult, however, to explain how an arm which might have belonged to Henri II could have strayed to an out-of-the-way place in Spain if it were not remembered that this prince, when he was still Duke of Orleans, went to Spain as hostage for his father, who had been made prisoner at the battle of Pavia.

The Musée d'Artillerie of Paris possesses a mace (Fig. 1399) which is almost identical, save that it is not signed by Diego de Zayas; but it certainly is his work (K 50). On it can be seen the same designs, the same animals, and the same inscriptions in Arabic, or in imitation of Arabic; for in both cases these inscriptions make no sense, being merely composed of characters taken at random. This mace also bears the two identical mottoes; it is also attributed to Henri II. Another enriched mace (Fig. 1400) in the Musée d'Artillerie (K 49) is a somewhat later production, but even more elaborate. It has a head of six flanges, each in the form of intertwined bodies of two dolphins holding in their mouths the fleur-de-lis, thus showing the French royal provenance of this parade arm. The haft is distinguished by three forms of decoration, the first a kind of trellis, the other two scale patterns of various dimensions. The whole mace was once gilt. In the Wallace Collection (No. 633) is shown a fine decorated mace of the XVIth century, perhaps a little simpler in design than the three already referred to, but a splendid example (Fig. 1401). Here the head is composed of eight flanges, the outline formed to a double scroll, with a small blunted projection in the centre of each; the haft