Peter Finer Sword - Rapière de 1680

Details

Description

A VERY RARE SILVER CUP-HILT RAPIER, SPANISH OR MEXICAN, circa 1680 With tapering blade of flattened hexagonal section, stamped ?DE HORTUNO DE? and ?AGUIRE EN TOLEDO? within a short fuller on the respective faces. The silver hilt finely cast and chiselled in relief, comprising a pair of straight quillons each formed as a nodular branch swelling slightly towards a flowerhead tip, pierced shaped écusson decorated with scrollwork, curved knuckle-guard en suite with the quillons with turned baluster moulding. The deep cup-guard pierced and chiselled with an elaborate arrangement of scrolling tendrils joined by stylised coronets carrying strapwork cartouches enclosing shaped escutcheons with a grotesque mask in the upper half, the lower band arranged in four segments pierced and chiselled with further arrangements of interlace scrollwork and also incorporating small grotesque masks. The guardapolvo embossed with a series of pierced concentric circles, compressed spherical openwork pommel decorated with scrolling foliage en suite with the écusson, silver openwork grip lined with crimson silk and retained by an engraved collar top and bottom The cup guard retaining its original padded crimson silk liner. While the style of the hilt is clearly Spanish the absence of marks would suggest it was of colonial manufacture. The pierced openwork decoration of the hilt is reminiscent of Mexican stirrups of the same period. Item ref: 580

Features

• Country : UNITED KINGDOM
• Materials : Silver
• Color : Silver
• Style : Philip V