17th century training rapier?

[fernando]

Originally Posted by broadaxe

... However, I still think the cross bars were bent backwards against its original design.

So they could. And yet, being of different length, it would look more plausible if they were meant to be originally positioned backwords ... as if the longer one served as a knuckle guard.
On the other hand, when it comes to fencing school rapiers, (quoting Jasper) the shape of quillons is a matter of personal taste and of course of the type of the fighting school and personal fighting skills.
We can see here how the same type of fencing rapiers may have different quillon approaches:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=school