A Fine North European Dish-Hilt Duelling Rapier

A Fine North European Dish-Hilt Duelling Rapier Circa 1640-50 With slender tapering blade of hexagonal section and unusual length terminating in a blunt swelling point of flattened diamond section, long ricasso of rectangular section with partly punched incised line borders, symmetrical steel hilt chiselled in low relief and comprising shallow dish-shaped guard decorated on the outside with pierced foliated scrollwork enclosing four medallions of profile busts of Classical helmeted warriors on a punched ground and surmounted by short bifurcated quillons each with triple-bud finials springing from the rectangular quillon-block, the last chiselled with a profile bust on each side en suite with the guard, tall associated ovoidal pommel decorated with scrolls on a punched ground, and writhen grip bound with twisted steel wire between Turk's heads 136 cm. blade Footnotes: Provenance Sotheby's Zürich, Feine Möbel und Skulpturen, Waffen und Rüstungen, 1 June 1994, lot 42 For a dish-hilt rapier with a similar quillon arrangement see Heribert Seitz, Blank-Waffen II, 1967, pp. 92-93 and 97, pl. 99 This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing