Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/95



Of Spanish fashion, but probably of Italian workmanship, about 1640 Tower of London (Class IX, No. 97)

bearing the surprisingly late date of 1701. It will be noticed that the cup of the Bargello rapier is shallower, though larger in circumference than those found on Italian weapons of a slightly earlier date, and that the edge of the cup is rolled over in order to catch the point of an adversary's weapon. The hilts of both the rapier and its main gauche dagger are very finely chased and pierced with dragons, scrollwork, etc., and though the design is poor and meaningless, the workmanship is of high excellence. Both the blades are Spanish, that of the rapier having inscribed on it:

MARIA CONCEBIDA SIN PECADO ORIGINAL,

that of the dagger bearing the mark of Pedro de Belmonte of Toledo. The only fine rapier possessed by our national armoury, the Tower of London, is a very splendid weapon of the type we have just described. This rapier (Fig. 1485) is of the very highest quality of workmanship; in fact, we are inclined to think that just as its ornamentation is more ambitious in design than that of the rapier and dagger now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (Figs. 1483 and 1484), so in the excellence of its execution it excels these two weapons. It has a grip of steel, chiselled in accordance with the remainder of the hilt. It is, however, a solitary weapon, not possessing the ''main gauche'' dagger belonging to it. It is not known how the Tower of London Armoury became possessed of it, but there is a tradition attaching to it that it came from the collection of the Duke of York, which was dispersed in 1830. It was illustrated, after having been on exhibition at the famous