Lot 34
34
AN ITALIAN SWEPT-HILT RAPIER with tapering double-edged blade of flattened diamond section, back-edged at the forte and struck on one face with a pine-cone(?) mark between four sickle marks, iron hilt with guard of slender bars comprising knuckle-guard, arms, their tips linked by an oval side-ring on the outside, and linked on both sides to the centre of the knuckle-guard by S-shaped bars, the inner one trifurcated, down-bent rear quillon with pointed ovoidal terminal, barrel-shaped pommel with medial rib at front and rear and stamped on one side with two interlinked addorsed 'C's under the Medici crown, 'C', 'FR', '145' and an unidentified letter, and writhen wire-bound wooden grip, circa 1610

Details
AN ITALIAN SWEPT-HILT RAPIER with tapering double-edged blade of flattened diamond section, back-edged at the forte and struck on one face with a pine-cone(?) mark between four sickle marks, iron hilt with guard of slender bars comprising knuckle-guard, arms, their tips linked by an oval side-ring on the outside, and linked on both sides to the centre of the knuckle-guard by S-shaped bars, the inner one trifurcated, down-bent rear quillon with pointed ovoidal terminal, barrel-shaped pommel with medial rib at front and rear and stamped on one side with two interlinked addorsed 'C's under the Medici crown, 'C', 'FR', '145' and an unidentified letter, and writhen wire-bound wooden grip, circa 1610
41¼in. blade

Lot Essay

The marks on the pommel are probably Medici armoury marks, refering to the Grand Duke Cosimo II (1609-1621). For an analogous double 'F' mark thought to refer to the armoury of Fernando de' Medici (1663-1713), son of the Grand Duke Cosimo III, see N. di Carpegna, Armi da Fuoco della Collezione Odescalchi (1984), p.114

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