Rapier: HEN.M.243-1933

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown (Uncertain)

Entities

• Rapier

Categories

• Weapons

Description

Rapier. Large urn-shaped pommel with button, the upper part chiselled with leaves, the lower with spiralling ridges. Grip of very fine wire, woven in basket-fashion with Turks' heads at top and bottom. Narrow, angular knuckle-guard, with a knob below the midpoint from beneath which spring single loop-guards, one on each side of the hilt, joining the upper edges of a double shell-guard; each loop-guard ends, where it touches the edges of the shells, in a strong upward scroll. Each of these loop-guards has a triple knob at its midpoint. Short quillons (the rear one missing) with a very large rectangular quillon-block, and knobbed ends. The surviving one (on the front of the hilt) turns sharply upward to meet the lower curve of the knuckle-guard. Shallow arms, supporting the double shell, turned outward in the spaces where the edges of the two shells meet. These shells, chiselled with a pattern of overlapping scales pierced with small holes have rims fashioned in the same manner as the loop-guards. Inside the hilt, the ricasso is covered by a rectangular iron sleeve, chiselled with a kind of double and motif.
Narrow blade, of diamond section, the faces hollowed out.
Norman hilt type 96 (variant).

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart

Dating

17th Century
Circa 1640 CE - 1670 CE

Note

There is a band of quite heavy corrosion along the blade about 1/3 of the way below thehilt, and the grip's wooden core has entirely perished, leaving the copper wire binding like an empty husk.