of the pommel is an enamelled silver shield with the quartered arms of four Nuremberg patrician families, the Spallten, the Welser, the Stromer, and the Amon, and on the other the Agnus Dei as in the case of the arms of the family Brixen. It has been suggested that these plaques are a later addition. Drooping over the blade are mounted rondels much in the fashion of those seen on the fine Venetian sword illustrated in Fig. 660. The blade is formidable, of great width and of flattened diamond section, closely grooved at the hilt, where its cutting edges are nearly parallel, and where it is etched and gilt with the Germanic eagle. The silver enrichments of the grip and scabbard still retain a strong Gothic influence.
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Fig. 711. One of the swords of state of the Emperor Maximilian I
Imperial Armoury, Vienna
In the Treasury of the Cathedral of Cologne is a very magnificent State sword, the ceremonial weapon of the electors of Cologne (Fig. 713), which has a silver over-*laid hilt and scabbard decorated with the finest German Gothic foliage and with figures in crocketed niches, and which is further embellished with certain enamelled enrichments in the late Rhenish manner.
The sword, which is to be found along with the other Insignia of the Order of St. George in the Schatzkammer of the Alte Residenz of Munich, is perhaps the finest enriched ceremonial weapon of the XVth century extant; for not only is its workmanship superb, but it shows the Gothic feeling of the XVth century wholly uninfluenced by that of the Renaissance (Fig. 714, a, b). It has up to the present time always been used at the ceremonies connected with the holding of a Chapter of the Order. It is said to have been presented to Duke Christoph of Bavaria by Beatrix, wife of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. We should date the weapon at some period between 1476 and 1493. Duke Christoph was the son of Duke Albert, who died in 1460. He was noted for his unusual strength and agility, and for his prowess in tournaments. He went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and died in 1493 on the way home.
