The Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection, A Family Collection, A National Museum, An International Treasure House

Results:  1

Rapier
  • Rapier
  • Unknown Artist / Maker
  • Germany
  • c. 1640 - c. 1650
  • Steel, blackened, pierced and notched
  • Length: 119.3 cm
    Length: 99 cm, blade
    Width: 2.2 cm
    Weight: 1.03 kg
  • Inscription: 'PETRVS' and cross with forked base
  • A638
  • European Armoury II
Commentary
Further Reading
  • Rapier, the swept hilt of which is made up of an oviform pommel built up of ten rings of petals, with button; hollow steel grip formed of spiral bars; knuckle-guard and diagonally curved quillons notched to simulate a branch of a tree, and ending in petalled knobs like the pommel (the knob missing from one end); side-ring and hilt-arms protected by double shell-guards pierced with countersunk, circular holes; in the centre of the side-ring is a petalled rosette, the whole of blackened steel. Blade of diamond section, the single fuller at the forte incised on both sides with the name:

    PETRVS

    and the mark of a cross with a forked base; the ricasso is covered by an oblong escutcheon decorated with a conventional tree pattern chiselled in low relief.

    Norman and Barne, 1980, p. 376. The chiselled petals and naturalistic decoration of the hilt are similar in style to A681. Blades inscribed Petrus in Toledo, are A584, and at Bern (Wegeli, no. 438). There is a rapier in the Metropolitan Museum, New York inscribed: Iuan Petrus.