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English, about 1630. Collection: Mr. Herbert Graystone

in circumference, has additional counter guards. Both these interesting weapons are in the collection of Mr. G. H. Ramsbottom. We now arrive at the characteristic so-called English rapier hilt of the type we have referred to. In construction it practically resembles its French neighbour; but it has two additional ring-guards above its shallow cup, as seen in a depressed form on the last flamberge hilt illustrated. The surface of the example we illustrate (Fig. 1471) is now, as it ever was, russeted and covered with minute floral decoration in hammered, pierced, and chiselled work, a decoration which is generally regarded as raising the presumption that the provenance of the hilt is Dutch. The date of the hilt is from about 1620 to 1650. The blade is inscribed . We give illustrations of two other rapiers of the same form and make of hilt though of somewhat coarser quality. One (Fig. 1472) is in the collection of Mr. G. H. Ramsbottom; the other (Fig. 1473) in that of