Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/118



French type, about 1670.

Collection: Author

Probably French, about 1630.

Collection: H.M. the King, Windsor Castle

In the first half of the XVIIth century we meet with curiously constructed swords of no particular family, but of good workmanship, which are not only difficult to date within a period of fifty years, but are still more difficult to assign to a nationality of origin. Take for instance a sword in the Windsor Collection, No. 681 in the 1904 Catalogue (Fig. 1515). The hilt in this case is of no marked form, though of good workmanship, and we should not here refer to it, but for the fact that, from the extreme elaboration of the subsidiary parts of the hilt, it is an excellent example of those eccentricities of form which are occasionally encountered. We consider it to be probably of French workmanship of the second quarter of the XVIIth century; though possibly the blade is somewhat earlier. When it was in the Carlton House Armoury of King George IV, this sword was looked upon as one of its greatest treasures; for it was then absurdly described as "The Sword of William the Conqueror, and of undoubtedly eleventh century manufacture." The hilt is of steel blued, with its principal ornaments gilded, the pommel is oviform and hollow, being shaped as four intertwined serpents—the upper portion forming a grotesque mask. The remaining guard of the sword is somewhat difficult to describe; as from the central ricasso covering issue numerous serpent-like shapes that coil and intercoil forming the knuckle-guards, the shells, the quillon, and the counter-guards. These are all chiselled with considerable refinement and quality of workmanship; although they are certainly grotesque in their general outline. The blade, of flattened oval section, is now 29-3/4 inches long, having lost some four inches of its original length; it is also perished, owing to rust oxidization. Its entire surface is a field for the richest gold azzi-*