Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/207

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Thames in 1739 when the building of the present Westminster Bridge was in progress. It is essentially a fighting sword, and in its original state must have been a fine enriched weapon. To-day, after its long immersion, it has only the engraved silver scabbard-mounts to tell the tale of its departed glories; on these are engraved arms, doubtless those of the owner (Fig. 161).

Fig. 166. Sword, probably Spanish, first half of the XIVth century

Collection: Signor Osma of Madrid

Of the early XIVth century swords in the Wallace Collection, No. 5, a war sword with a stiff thrusting blade, is a fine and characteristically shaped weapon. The pommel is of the heavy wheel form, and the quillons droop slightly towards the blade, which is 29-1/2 inches long and bears as an armourer's mark the letter T (Fig. 162). A sword bearing the same armourer's mark, but one inch longer in the blade, was formerly in the collection of the Baron de Cosson. Both swords were found in France, whilst a third sword of exactly the same type, though with a different mark upon