- point of their superlative design; although others of simpler construction
are to be seen in large numbers in all the more important public and private collections. In the case of this type the noteworthy features are the evenly balanced pommel and grip, the diagonally curved quillons, the pas-d'âne, connected by a counter bar with the left quillon. From the opposite pas-d'âne, issuing at a right angle and slightly upcurved, is a short bar. This guard formation, though in a modified degree, is fashioned on the inner side of the hilt. Of the two hilts of this type, we shall first illustrate and describe the more important, that on the superb sword-rapier preserved in the Imperial Armoury, Vienna, and known to have belonged to Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol (Fig. 1347). The whole hilt is of russeted iron perfectly chiselled, and decorated with gold and silver azzimina. The combination of its style and period (about 1550-60), the former being slightly in advance of the latter, would lead us to imagine that it was produced under French influence; but since the provenance of this sword is supposed to be the same as that of the harness illustrated in Fig. 1059, Vol. iii, which has been attributed to the hand of a mysterious Milanese armourer (the late Herr Wendelin Boeheim called him Giovanni Battista Serabaglio), we may assume that the hilt was made by the same armourer, or under his direction. The French influence is undoubtedly noticeable, especially in the case of the pommel, where, between oval sunken panels containing figure subjects, are broad dividing straps chiselled in a most wonderful manner in high relief and deeply undercut from the body of the pommel. On the grip is the figure of Fortune; while the ends of the quillon are formed as caryatids, placed back to back. The blade associated with this superb hilt, which is simply grooved and slender though very workmanlike, is damascened with gold on the ricasso, and would appear to be Milanese work, the mark of a well-known bladesmith of this city, whose name is unknown, being twice repeated upon it. Its original scabbard and carriage are still in existence. The second sword of this type to which we allude is now to be seen in the Baron Ferdinand Rothschild bequest to the British Museum (Fig. 1348). Baron Ferdinand acquired it from the Spitzer Collection, where it rightly held the place of honour among weapons of its own class. On this sword the same formation of hilt may be noted as appears on the last sword described, and we should not be surprised if it came from the same hand. The British Museum sword has less chiselling on its hilt than there is on that of the other weapon; but it is richer in the gold damascening, which the late M. de Beaumont likened to the work of Damianus de Nerve, though he considered the hilt a German production,
