Side sword with Victorian chiseled hilt?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by ulfberth

these 3 are all good , the schiavona looks complete and undamaged, the North Italian naval sabre 17th c has a nice blade, its pretty rare and looks nicer than most, the cup hilt is probably late 17th or early 18th c it has a nice colichemarde blade, more details of the gaurds , grips pommel and blade would be nice, these seem to be pure and unaltered items.
Here is a picture of a similar rapier as the one you bought, this particular one has the two guard rings intact and has the original pommel, it was sold at auction 11 years ago and described as 19th c but it was absolute completely all original.
kind regards
Ulfberth

Its always so good to see your entries here!!!! Your astute eye catches all, and your assessments confident and IMO conclusive.

The cuphilt is amazing, I've really never seen one with a colichemarde blade. In my view, with the advent of the colichemarde blade in the period you note it is well established this type blade became de riguer in France and England.
It is remarkably rare to see one on a Spanish cup hilt as these were attuned more to the 'Spanish fight' (destreza) primarily, which was markedly different than the French technigues.

The generally held theory on the colichemarde was that it provided a stronger upper blade section for the parry, with the French style of fencing which concentrated on much more dynamic swordplay and the lighter and faster small sword. The thin distal end of the blade of course afforded the thrust of the rapier. Allegedly the colichemarde blade fell out of favor by mid 18th in the civilian sector but seems to have been held traditionally longer by the military with their strong sense of tradition.

On this interesting rapier in the OP, am I mistaken or could the dual markings on the blade be spuriously applied renditions of those of the house of Missaglia in Milan? One of the variations of their mark seems to be a 'tailed' cross ("Scottish Swords from the Battlefield of Culloden", Lord Archibald Campbell, repr. Andrew Mowbray, 1971, p.48).
With the unusual 'running wolf', this blade seems certainly a 17th century Solingen product, but unusual to see the Missaglia (?) mark. It seems of course that Solingen favored Spanish names and punzones, but with Milan being in Spains provincial sphere, many Spanish arms and armor had these connections.

[ulfberth]

Thank you for your kind words Jim !
Over the years I had two cup hitls with colichemarde blades , one was a very nice pierced cup hilt of high quality with almost the exact type of blade, the handling was incredible, i will look if i still can find some pictures of it.
You are right about the blade marks being Italian , perhaps they used a German export blade and stamped it when it was fitted ? Its just an assumption because i realy cant say why, we sometimes find things, contradictions to wich we cant answer with facts ( yet )
kind regards
Ufberth