Thomas Del Mar - Arms & Armour

62
153
A FINE GERMAN SWORD-RAPIER, LAST QUARTER OF
THE 16TH CENTURY
with straight blade double-edged for the last third, cut with
a pair of long slender fullers over almost its entire length, a
further fuller along the back-edge on each side, struck with
a Pi mark between a pair of mullets, on each side at the
forte and cut with a latten-inlaid running wolf mark on one
side (small losses), blackened steel hilt of rounded bars,
comprising a pair of horizontally recurved quillons swelling
towards the terminals, upper ring-guard swelling in the
centre, lower ring-guard formed en suite and joined to the
upper by a pair of arms, trifurcated inner-guard joined to
the quillon-block by a thumb-loop, spherical pommel,
original wooden grip retaining traces of an early binding,
and the hilt retaining much original finish throughout
99.7cm; 39Din blade
The hilt conforms to Norman type 43. An almost identical
sword stamped with the same marks on the blade and
presumably from the same series is preserved in the Royal
Armouries, Turin. See C. Bertolotto et al 1982, no.128 and
p.355. A large number of swords stamped with the socalled
Pi mark on the blade are extant. Many are preserved
in the Zeughaus in Graz which may point to a Styrian origin
while others are signed by the renowned Munich
swordsmith Melchart Diefstetter. H.Nickel has suggested
that in view of its very widespread use it may have been
adopted in a number of centres as a mark of quality, in the
same way that the Toledo mark and the signature of Andria
Ferrara were widely forged. See H. Stöcklein 1918-20,
p. 372 and A. V. B. Norman 1986 pp.140-1.
£10000-12000