antique arms, armour & militaria - Thomas Del Mar

130
A RARE GERMAN SWEPT-HILT RAPIER WITH CHISELLED
STEEL HILT, CIRCA 1610
with tapering blade of flattened-hexagonal section, signed
‘Hortuno Aguir en Toledo’ between a series of pierced slots
and circles within a pair of slender fullers on each face,
tapering ricasso stamped with the bladesmith's mark on
each side (rubbed, the blade with areas of pitting) and cut
with cross hatching on the edges, steel hilt of rounded bars
comprising a pair of straight swelling quillons (the right
quillon expertly replaced), écusson, outer ring-guard joined
at the base to a pair of arms, lower ring-guard, knuckleguard
joined to the ring-guard by a diagonal bar, trifurcated
inner-guard, and barrel-shaped pommel, the principal bars
and the pommel chiselled with an arrangement of nude
figures in differing attitudes amidst scrolling foliage (areas
of pitting, rubbed), and the grip bound with plaited wire
and ‘Turk’s heads’
98.5cm; 38Pin blade
Provenance
Eric Valentine, sold Christie, Manson & Woods, 25th
February 1981, lot 55.
Literature
Eric Valentine, Rapiers, Arms & Armour Press 1968, no. 15
Hortuno de Aguirre is recorded in Toledo in the early 17th
Century. A sword with a blade and hilt of related form is
preserved in the Wallace Collection (inv. no. A589). For a
discussion of this group see A. V. B. Norman 1986 pp. 136-
7. Another blade stamped with this mark is preserved in
the Armeria Reale, Madrid (inv. no. G81).
£5000-7000
130
63