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Fig. 1494. Cup-hilted rapier

The design on the cup is chiselled out of the solid metal. Of Spanish fashion, but Italian workmanship, about 1660-70. Wallace Collection

(Laking Catalogue, No. 584)

encircles the ricasso of the blade about half-way between its juncture with the quillon's block and its entrance through the base of the cup. The blades used on this very late cup-hilted rapier are delicately fashioned, slight, and not of exaggerated length; while the grip of the hilt appears to have narrowed, and to have become more square-shaped in section, and slightly longer. Very occasionally the solid-cupped rapiers are enriched by surface chiselling or even by embossing. This kind of rapier hilt is, however, rarely seen; indeed, the author knows of only two genuine examples in England, one at Windsor Castle and the other in the Wallace Collection. These solid chiselled hilts, though of late date, are interesting on account of their manner of workmanship and design, which latter in both the examples we are about to describe seems influenced by some French school of decoration. The rapier at Windsor Castle, and its attendant parrying dagger are very fine examples of the type to which we allude. It is the tradition that those two weapons were once the property of Philip IV of Spain (1621-65). They came from the Armoury of Don Manuel Godoy, called the Prince of Peace, and were presented to George IV for his Armoury at Carlton House in 1812 by General Doyle (Fig. 1493). The hilt of the rapier is of the usual cup form, with long straight quillons ending in knobs, deep pas-d'âne, knuckle-guard, and flattened spherical pommel. The cup is large and hemi-