Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/116

 sword, complete with its scabbard and mounts, these latter being of solid silver like the hilt, cleverly designed as figures of boys. The hilt is Flemish and suggests a design by Il Fiammingo.

The blade is inscribed:, and dated 1650.

Collection: Mr. E. H. Litchfield, New York

Continuing our remarks upon the broadswords of the XVIIth century from page 325 of Volume iv we may add that such weapons, furnished with hilts of varying forms, are to be found in nearly every English collection. In the armoury of Windsor Castle there are beautifully finished examples of mid-XVIIth century date, Nos. 63 and 70 in the 1904 Catalogue (Figs. 1509 and 1510). The former, a sword once in the collection of King George III at Augusta Lodge, has the guard composed of two large shells and a double knuckle-guard, finely chiselled with soldiers combating in the costume of about 1640; while the latter, which is of cruder workmanship, has a basket hilt blued and gilded. This was a very serviceable sort of hilt, which in the collector's language is known as of the "mortuary" type. The term is supposed to describe a form of commemorative hilt worn by Royalists in memory of the Stuart King, Charles I. Broadswords, with hilts of this class, are certainly of English fashion; for they are not to be met with on the Continent. Basket hilts are often found which are roughly chased with crude likenesses of Charles I and of his Queen; the question whether they were used exclusively by Royalists, and were eschewed by the Parliamentarians does not seem a difficult one to answer. We are inclined to think that the decoration of the hilt was personal to the wearer, and that the basket-hilted sword, which was more often than not a sword with back-*edged blade, was a thoroughly workmanlike