Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/88



English, about 1630-40. Collection: Mr. G. H. Ramsbottom

English, about 1630-40. Collection: Mr. G. H. Ramsbottom

Mr. Felix Joubert. Our next example, the sword-rapier hilt, the cup of which is chiselled to represent the crowned portrait bust of Charles I (Fig. 1474), shows a still further approach in shape to the actual cup-hilted rapier of mid-XVIIth century times; here the cup is much deeper though it is forged in one with the remainder of the hilt. This interesting English weapon is in the collection of Mr. Herbert Graystone. Two other sword-rapier hilts of this same family we also illustrate. Both we think are English, and of about the same period (Figs. 1475 and 1476), namely, from 1630 to 1640. When we come to consider the cup-hilted rapier in its fully developed form, we have to turn to Italy for the earliest examples. As compared with their Spanish rivals of a few years later date, these Italian hilts have the cup at once deeper and smaller in circumference; the pommel is still oviform, if somewhat larger in proportions as compared with the flattened button-like pommel of the Spanish types. As a very representative example we select a rapier in the Wallace Collection, No. 594 (Fig. 1477). The weapon has never been tampered with; the hilt, grip, and blade all belong to one another. The deep cup is substantial in make, pierced with conventional monsters, masks, etc., almost in the earlier Brescian manner. The ends of the quillons and knuckle-guard also terminate in figures of beasts. The very unusual medium of fire gilding, a medium hardly ever seen in the decoration of a cup-hilted rapier, enriches the whole surface of the hilt. It is a remark