Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/115

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Fig. 1510. Hilt of a broadsword

Of the type termed "Mortuary," with blue and gold decoration Collection: H.M. the King, Windsor Castle

entirely genuine hilt. Many museums show hilts of ivory of this same period, some of higher artistic merit than others. Hilts of solid silver are often seen late in the XVIIth century; they are mostly of Dutch workmanship, and, like that country's applied art of the period, are indifferent in design. In the writer's opinion they were in most cases made for exportation; a great friend of the author, the late Captain Alfred Hutton, possessed a sword with a fine hilt in this medium and of this period, which is illustrated on page 195 of his work, "The Sword and the Centuries." A sword in the collection of the author provides another interesting example, somewhat like a "pillow"