New Sword Collector Seeking Input

[Seeker]

Thank you very much, Sir, for your erudite reply. I had not heard the term "squelette" before. In French, it apparently meeans skeleton, or perhaps skeletal, to make it an adjective. Is the apply applied to all bar or ring style hilts, or only to the 7-ring hilt?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Thank you very much, Sir, for your erudite reply. I had not heard the term "squelette" before. In French, it apparently meeans skeleton, or perhaps skeletal, to make it an adjective. Is the apply applied to all bar or ring style hilts, or only to the 7-ring hilt?

The term 'squelette' is of course a 'colloquial' term loosely applied and presumably is thus occasionally applied perhaps to some of the others of this form even with lesser number of rings. These kinds of terms typically fall into the realm of 'collectors terms' which often add a certain flair to descriptions but are often the bane of students of arms trying to research material.

The anchor is a widely familiar device which actually began usage in Spain, but was later copied in Solingen as they adopted the use of spurious Toledo makers marks during the demise of that center from about mid 17th c.
The Solingen versions IMO seem to have more elaborate crossbars etc, and the one on the English rapier resembles Spanish examples Ive seen from c. 1620 (Atocha shipwreck- Perez?).
Not to say no Solingen examples copied this form, just that most are with more elaborate details.
Toledo blades were highly desirable on these early English rapiers.

[Fernando K]

Hello everyone

Forgive my ignorance. I'm not a collector of edged weapons, but I'd be interested in the experts' opinions on the guard decoration. It's acid etched, file-cut, stamped, or perhaps engraved with burins or chisels (I don't see any details that would allow us to know how it was obtained). Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

[Seeker]

A lot of great information in these most recent posts. Thanks to everyone involved.

[Triarii]

Originally Posted by Fernando K

Hello everyone

Forgive my ignorance. I'm not a collector of edged weapons, but I'd be interested in the experts' opinions on the guard decoration. It's acid etched, file-cut, stamped, or perhaps engraved with burins or chisels (I don't see any details that would allow us to know how it was obtained). Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

They're a combination of drilled, chiselled and filed.