HOPPE of Solingen,[1] and is partly of flattened diamond section, etched near the hilt with short patriotic inscriptions in Latin. The ricasso is covered with gilded iron made to fit over the top of the scabbard. Another fine sword-rapier of this same type is in the collection of the late Mr. Frank Gair Macomber of Boston, U.S.A. In the case of this example the hilt of blued steel has had fitted to it a finely etched blade by Clemens Horn (Fig. 1391). In the same collection is another (Fig. 1392) fine sword-rapier like its companion in form, but with a hilt of steel plated with silver. We give two other variations of the Flemish rapier-sword hilt; one which came from the collection of the late Mr. Edwin Brett (Fig. 1393) has a gilt iron hilt possessing a flat oval pommel pierced on one side with a circular hole, to which could be attached a tassel or sword knot. The other is a hilt in the Wallace Collection (No. 546) of more elaborate construction, though of later date, being of the first quarter of the XVIIth century (Fig. 1394). The whole of this latter hilt is silver-plated, the decoration of which consists of roughly chiselled strapwork and of crude engraving on a ground that is worked to a matted surface. This rapier has a pear-shaped pommel, with flat curved quillons ending in cartouches, its two rings are also enriched with cartouches, and the small shell has a pierced ornament. The blade is of flattened diamond section bearing on the ricasso the name CAINO, denoting that it is the work of Pietro Caino, the bladesmith of Milan, whose house was at the sign of "The golden lion" in the via degli Spadari, in which street the great Milanese armourers, the Missaglia, once lived.
- ↑ Vol. i, p. lxiii
