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By tradition said to have belonged to Louis XIV. French workmanship. The blade is dated 1667. J 383, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

About 1690. Collection: H.M. the King, Windsor Castle

d'Artillerie, J 383 (Fig. 1521). The blade bears the inscription etched and gilded on a blued ground:. Although the blade is too large and heavy for the hilt, which is of gilded bronze, there can be little doubt that the two belong one to the other, a circumstance which makes the sword an interesting specimen, showing, as it does, the early date at which the manufacture of the perfected court sword hilt was reached; for until the advent of the second quarter of the XVIIIth century, the form of the hilt does not differ practically from that of this example. As the next most typical true "small" or court sword of the early