Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/83

 CHAPTER XXXVIII

Our chapter dealing with the swords and rapiers of the XVIth century was prolonged so as to cover the commencement of the XVIIth century; for certain families of swords and rapiers, to which we do not propose again to allude, were evolved during the transitional years of those two centuries. We do not intend to deal at any length with the sword and rapier when we reach the third quarter of the XVIIth century; for that would take us to the period of the almost universal adoption throughout Europe of what is commonly called the Court or "small" sword, the use and rules of which are practically identical with those of the modern épée. The art of the worker of the sword hilt of the XVIIIth century is a subject on which a good deal might be written; for even to-day it has been so neglected as to leave the metal-worker's craft of that period almost unexplored. The hilts of these pretty XVIIIth century toys, for in many cases they are no more than toys, are marvels of ingenious design and unrivalled productions of the art of the iron-worker and jeweller; but to describe such hilts is beyond the scope of this work.

When we last dealt with the rapier of the early years of the XVIIth century the hilt was developing, both in its English and in its Flemish shape, into the true cup or bell-hilted form; but in its early stages it could hardly be called the cup-hilt as we employ the term to-day. Until the last generation the true cup-hilted rapier was universally supposed to have belonged to the latter part of the XVIth century, and, quite regardless of its nationality or type, was put under the general class "Elizabethan." It is perfectly safe, however, to affirm that no cup-hilted rapier belongs to the XVIth, or even to the first quarter of the XVIIth century. True there is a rapier in the Royal Armoury of Madrid, G 80, attributed to Philip III, which bears the date 1604 (Fig. 1466); but as we have never examined