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Fig. 1566. A cup-hilted rapier of mid-XVIIth century form
An Italian forgery of about 1880
Of the cup-form hilts which, belonging to the second half of the XVIIth century, were in the past nearly always described as Elizabethan, countless forgeries have been made, some carefully copied, others ridiculous in their method of decoration. These, we think, are usually Italian productions. The collector should never contemplate the purchase of a cup-hilted rapier that relies upon embossing for its decoration. Such rapiers are nearly all forgeries. The usual ornamentation bestowed upon the ordinary Spanish and Italian cup-hilted rapiers takes the form of compositions of scrollwork executed in the so-called Brescian manner, pierced in a lace-like style varying in the degrees of fineness according to the quality of the hilt. The sham hilts purporting to be in this style will be found to possess ornamentation which is too heavy when it is cast work, and too light when it consists of legitimate hand work. It will also be seen that in the modern cups that are chased by hand, on the inside of the cup where the reverse side of the pattern appears, a burr around the edge of the pierced tracery is noticeable.
