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Fig. 1396. Chiselled iron pole-axe head
Italian, second half of the XVIth century. Metropolitan Museum, New York
The head is connected with the haft socket by means of chased openwork volutes. The hammer and beak, the latter slightly hooked, are richly chased, the hammer being ornamented with figures, animals, masks, and grotesques; the beak with masks, shells, and openwork fluting. The haft socket is entirely covered with caryatid birds, interlaced ornaments, and festoons chased in high relief in the most luxuriant taste of the Renaissance. This hammer head was formerly in the Cadogan Collection. It was exhibited in 1857 at the "Exhibition of Art Treasures" in Manchester. It passed later into the Spitzer Collection, afterwards into that of the Duc de Dino, and thence to the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Occasionally one finds the primitive form of the war-hammer adhered to, as in the case of the example we next illustrate (Fig. 1397), which, had the surface not been enriched with gold and silver azzimina damascening, might reasonably be supposed to belong to the end of the XVth century rather than to the close of the XVIth century.
