Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/110

 more the prototype of the XVIIIth century dress sword, with a short pas-d'âne and shell; while the other, which is in a collection made by Sir Martin Harvey, has a well-marked knuckle-guard (Fig. 1500). Neither of these swords now possesses the blade originally fitted to the hilt. In the Musée d'Artillerie of Paris are two examples of the "pillow" sword, J 223 and 224 (Figs. 1501 and 1502), the gift of the Baron des Mazis to that Museum; both have hilts of bright steel and possess their original blades. The sword catalogued as J 223 possesses its original scabbard, and appears to be of Italian, or to be more precise, of Brescian workmanship, of about the middle of the XVIIth century. The other, J 224, is probably French; for the general openwork design of the pommel and quillon, a design of festoons of drapery and scrollwork, is strongly reminiscent of French art of the latter part of the XVIIth century.

As the XVIIth century advances, sword and rapier hilts are to be found in great variety, some of which vary so greatly both in form and in decoration, that we find difficulty in placing them in any particular family of weapon. By this statement we mean that a hilt may appear to be of quite a late type, when in reality it belongs to the early part of the century and vice versa. For instance, the rapier hilt in the Wallace Collection, No. 894 (Fig. 1503), shows us a guard that might even be accepted as belonging to the third quarter of the XVIIth century; whereas we recognize in the style of the chiselled enrichment and gilding the hand of Sadeler of Brussels, most of whose work was accomplished in the third quarter of the XVIth century. This Sadeler or Sadler, whose name so far as we can ascertain was Daniel, was father of the more famous Jan Sadeler, the engraver, of whose work we know of over 185 prints. To Daniel Sadeler are attributed that fine series of firearms with their accessories which are preserved in the Royal Armoury of Turin, and traditionally supposed to have been a gift of Philip II of Spain to Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy. Many superb firearms and a few famous swords by him are to be seen in the more important museums of Europe. Take another example, the sword in the Royal Collection at Windsor, No. 69 in the 1904 Catalogue (Fig. 1504). Here is a hilt which, from its form, we should have judged not to have been earlier than 1680; yet we can detect a very great likeness in the chiselling to that which enriches the hilt of the splendid "John Hampden" sword (Vol. iv, Fig. 1361). In fact, in our opinion, it comes from the same hand, and, as such, must be of the latter part of the XVIth or of the early years of the XVIIth centuries. We are, however, inclined to think that the hilt of the sword is not quite complete, and that