towards the close of the middle of the XVth century, and was known in contemporary Spain as Espada á la ginéta. Such swords are to-day of excessive rarity, and not more than nine complete examples are known. Of those that survive, certainly the finest in existence is that captured in 1483 from Boabdil, the last Moorish King of Granada, after his fall at Lucena. It was taken by an ancestor of the Marquis of Villaseca, who took Boabdil prisoner. In accordance with the code of chivalry of the time, the arms of the conquered king went to the conqueror, and in this case have been kept as heirlooms in the family ever since. The sword which, together with the dagger and velvet robe of the Moorish King, now belong by inheritance to the Dowager Marquise de Viana of Madrid, is a real triumph of exuberant decoration—gold, silver, and translucent enamels all playing their part in its enrichment (Fig. 661). We should not err perhaps if we suggested that the elaborateness of its ornamentation renders it less attractive than some of the simpler specimens of the same type. As a weapon it must assuredly have been of uncomfortable balance; for the grip and pommel appear diminutive in comparison with the width of the blade and with the heaviness of the quillons, which latter droop directly over the blade, their extreme ends curving upwards again and terminating in monster heads. On some of the swords of this type quillons are met with which in their primitive form were fashioned as elephant heads with trunks, but which by degrees, thanks to the fancy of the swordsmith, afterwards took a form in which only the bare suggestion of the elephant shape is discernible. The method of enamelling the sheath and hilt of this famous sword shows a combined process of cloisonne and champlevé work; the gold groundwork is minutely applied with formal foliage and geometrical designs in filigree.
The sword of Villaseca, for so it is known, is 39 inches long—this includes 12 inches for the hilt. It has been suggested that the blade is not contemporary with the hilt and has been added early in the XVIIth century; for it is of Toledo make, and bears as bladesmith's mark the letter S, a poinçon very similar to that used by Alonso Sahagun the elder. We, how-*ever, are of the opinion that it may be the original blade; for the other sword, of the same kind, which still exists at Granada, has likewise a blade marked T, denoting the city of Toledo. This coincidence appears to suggest that blades made in that city were preferred by Spaniards; in any case both swords exactly fit their sheaths, which are undoubtedly original.
To resume, the hilt of the Villaseca sword is of solid gold, enamelled in
