CIRCA 1660

细节

A RARE ENGLISH ENAMEL-HILTED HANGER
Circa 1660
With curved blade double-edged towards the point and punched with 'so-called' sickle marks on both sides (sharpened, heavily patinated), brass hilt cast in low relief, comprising ram-like grotesque head pommel and grip cast in one piece, knuckle-guard of flattened section swelling at the median point, outer shell and small quillon all formed as an additional single piece, and the principle surfaces decorated with a running pattern of stylised fruit, flowers and leaves on a deep blue cold enamel ground (the enamel with small losses).
26in (66cm) blade

注意事项

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品专文

The form of enamelling applied to this sword hilt refers to a highly individual group of English enamelled brass objects, including candlesticks, firedogs and stirrups dating between 1645 and 1690. They aquired the name 'Surrey' in 1931 when C.R. Beard ascribed their manufacture to a factory in Esher, Surrey, although this has since been contested by Claude Blair (see below). The process, unlike the more common champlevé technique, involved those shallow recesses to be enamelled being cast rather than cut, the exposed brass surfaces remaining as important to the design as the enamel.

The present hilt compares closely with that of a sword in The Royal Armouries, Leeds (IX.756) and it has been suggested by the Armouries that the two may have been cast from the same mould.

For further discussion on this form of enamelling, see Claude Blair, Surrey Enamels Reattributed: Part 1, The Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, Volume 13, June 2005 and Blair and Patterson, Surrey Enamels Reattributed, Part 2, ibid, Volume 14, June 2006.