type we should place a sword in the royal collection of Windsor. This weapon was purchased for the royal collection early in the XIXth century from a swordsmith named Hilman, of Bond Street. In all probability it is of English workmanship, and might be of the early years of the Restoration (No. 509 in the 1904 Catalogue of the Windsor Armoury) (Fig. 1522). The hilt, inclusive of the grip, is entirely of burnished steel. The only feature seldom found in a "small" sword is the shape of its pommel, which resembles the elongated oviform pommel seen in swords of the early years of the XVIIth century. The grip, pommel, and shells are chiselled à jour with an intricate flowing scroll design. Upon this, at given intervals, are chiselled profile male and female busts, which are no doubt intended to represent portraits of Charles II and his Queen, Catherine of Braganza. These portraits upon the grip are supported by emblematical female figures, representing "Sovereignty" and "Strength"; while upon the shells are oval panels framed by dolphins, containing figures of Mars, Minerva, St. George and the Dragon, and Britannia. The blade now in the hilt, though in accord with the type of hilt, does not appear to have been originally made for it; it is of the Colichemarde type.
We cannot leave the subject of the offensive arms of the XVIIth century without making an allusion to the various types of curved swords that, as the century progressed, were produced in large numbers and in strange types. No doubt very many of them were intended as weapons of the chase. Indeed, large numbers are still to be seen with their original scabbards, in which are partitions for holding eviscerating implements; but such weapons are practically outside the scope of this work. The portraits of the middle and subsequent years of the XVIIth century often show us a nobleman in semi-classical attire armed with a short curved sword, hanger, or cutlass, especially in the case of portraits of English or Dutch origin. A good many of these curved hangers, dating from the reign of Charles I to that of Queen Anne, are not, as usually supposed, hunting swords, but naval hangers or cutlasses. In the Neu-eröffnete Welt-galerie von P. Abrahamo à S. Chiara, folio, Nuremberg, 1703, there is a plate entitled Englischer Admiral zur See, and in his hand is a drawn curved sword exactly of the type of which so many exist. Here it is to be noted that the sword carried is of the form we have been accustomed to call a hunting sword; but from the inscription on the portrait we learn that the person represented is a distinguished naval commander. Peculiar to England and to the early part of the XVIIth century are a large family of curved swords, the hilts of some of which are of remarkable
