the Bargello Museum, Florence; the beauty of their decoration speaks for itself. Unhappily the former provenances of these excellent specimens are not known; but each is not only undoubtedly authentic but in its way as fine an example in the matter of workmanship as any existing weapon of the type with which we are acquainted (Fig. 828, a, b, c, d).
There are admirable specimens in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, one of the most beautiful coming from the Londesborough and afterwards from the Zschille Collections (Fig. 829). This is perhaps one of the few daggers of this type recorded that has panels of silver decorated with niello work enriching the hilt. The pommel plaques are composed of applied medallions of gilt bronze with figure subjects in low relief. The exposed portions of the wide blade tang are etched and gilt. The blade is of flattened diamond-shaped section, with a ricasso likewise etched and gilt. A second dagger with silver niello enrichments, but more Spanish in character, is in the collection of Prince Ladislaus Odescalchi of Rome (Fig. 830). In the Reubell Collection is an unsurpassed series, one of which is sufficiently beautiful to merit individual mention. The ivory grip of this example is of the greatest elegance—attenuated and Gothic in feeling, the influence of the Renaissance being suggested by minutely-carved masks of lions' heads. In the Dino Collection there is an "ear" dagger with a gilded hilt which has inlaid panels of mother-of-pearl and a setting of small turquoises. This is a sumptuously beautiful weapon; but, alas! the authenticity of its hilt has been questioned. However, as it comes from the collection of the late Signor Ressman, whose knowledge was very great, we must waive our own views as to its genuineness (Fig. 831). Of the more ordinary type of "ear" dagger, heavily proportioned but eminently serviceable, we illustrate two specimens very similar in construction; both have applied pommel and grip plaques of horn, and blades of flattened diamond-shaped section widening somewhat in breadth from their ricassos. One (Fig. 832) is in the Dino Collection, the other (Fig. 833), a good example but over-cleaned from the collector's standpoint, is No. 111 of the Wallace Collection. Finally, we terminate our list of the "ear" daggers with a brief description of an historical dagger, which, together with two other daggers of the same type, is now preserved in Room F, Case 111 of the Ambrosian Library, Milan. Two of these daggers (Fig. 834, a, b) are worked to the utmost perfection, the exposed metal parts of the hilt being minutely damascened with gold, introducing panels with designs of animals conventionally rendered, while the ivory plaques of the grip are carved with leafage and inscriptions in the
