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Fig. 1387. Sword hilt, from a portrait of one of the Fighting Veres
Showing the hilt with silver medallion heads similar to those on the hilt of the sword illustrated in Fig. 1386. The picture is dated 1618
is very large and spheroidal, and the quillons, which are straight and of oval section, issue from a central block which overlaps the blade on either face; while a formation similar to that of the pommel, but smaller, is at the end of each quillon. The grip is bound with silver wire. The hilt is very richly decorated with circular panels containing heads of Roman Emperors, between which are bunches of flowers and fruit; from these, hung by ribbons, appear trophies of Cupids' masks, etc., thickly incrusted with silver. The ground-*work, originally gilt, is now somewhat corroded. We give as a matter of interest and of comparison a portion of a portrait of one of the fighting Veres, painted by an anonymous artist of the early years of the XVIIth century, in which the hilt of the sword shows a decoration similar to that which appears upon the sword just described, although the form is of the usual James I type (Fig. 1387). A variation of the James I sword-hilt is one in which the counter-guards are dispensed with, the parts of the hilt consisting solely of the big spheroidal pommel, the knuckle-guard, the quillons
