Thomas Del Mar - Arms & Armour

225
AN EXCEPTIONAL HUNGARIAN SILVER-MOUNTED AND
GEM-SET PARADE MACE, MID-19TH CENTURY
with bulbous head comprising seven thick shaped flanges
alternating with seven slender flanges, the thicker
decorated with polychrome enamelled lozenges, studded
on the outer edge with baroque pearls, emeralds, and
rubies in raised settings enriched with silver beads and
gold pellets, the thinner flanges pierced and engraved with
scrolling foliage, and studded with silver beads on the
outer face, large compressed spherical finial decorated with
enamels and stones en suite, and with a large baroque
pearl at the top, two-stage haft, the upper portion chased
with scrolls en rocaille on a punched ground, set with
smaller stones in raised settings, and the lower portion left
plain and pierced for a thong, fitted with a collar at the top,
the middle and the bottom each decorated en suite with
the finial, the latter with a matching hemi-spherical cap set
with an emerald, and remaining in very good untouched
condition throughout: in its original leather-covered case
with tooled borders, the interior lined with padded velvet
(the case with light wear)
61.8cm; 24G in
The decoration of this mace is clearly related to the work of
earlier Hungarian jewellers and goldsmiths, as illustrateed
on belt buckles, breast rosettes and other accoutrements.
The present mace, like the more commonly encountered
magnate sabres, reflects the style of Hungarian applied arts
and architecture of the mid-19th century, a time when that
country was looking back on its great 17th century past.
See I. Fodor, K. Földi-Dózsa, I. Gerelyes, J. Hajtó-Kolba, T. S.
Kovács, A. T. Néémeth, G. Róózsa 1994.
£6000-8000
225
97