The rapier was the principal civilian sidearm throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Designed for cut-and-thrust fencing of progressively complex techniques, the rapier is characterized by a double-edged blade with an acute point and an elaborate guard for the hand. The guards, usually of iron or steel, were subject to a variety of embellishment. They were engraved, chiseled, gilded, damascened, and encrusted in gold and silver in keeping with fashionable styles.
Unless otherwise noted, the materials, attributions, and dating given here refer to the hilts. Rapier blades, invariably of steel, bear a variety of maker’s marks denoting their origin in the two principal centers of blademaking, Toledo in Spain and Solingen in Germany.
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Title:Rapier
Date:early 17th century
Culture:probably German
Medium:Steel, silver, iron
Dimensions:L. 46 5/16 in. (117.6 cm); L. of blade 39 7/8 in. (101.3 cm); W. 11 3/8 in. (28.9 cm); Wt. 3 lb. 9 oz. (1616 g)
Classification:Swords
Credit Line:Gift of Stephen V. Grancsay, 1942
Object Number:42.50.12
Marking: Stamped on the obverse of the ricasso: a portrait bust probably of a monk's head within a shield (possibly an abbreviation of the coat-of-arms of Munich); on the reverse: the Bavarian coat-of-arms (the "Rautenschild," probably a proof-mark of Munich).
Clarence H. Mackay, Roslyn, NY (until d. 1938; his estate, sold through Seligmann & Co. to Grancsay); Stephen V. Grancsay, New York (by January 14, 1941–42; his gift to MMA).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Loan Exhibition of European Arms and Armor," August 3–September 27, 1931, no. 155 (called "Italian, 1570," lent by Clarence H. Mackay).
Bonnaffé, Edmond. Le Musée Spitzer. Paris: Imprimerie de l'art, 1890. Appendix, p. 31.
Spitzer, Frédéric. "Armes et Armures." In La Collection Spitzer: Antiquité--Moyen-Âge--Renaissance. Vol. VI. Paris: Maison Quantin, 1892. no. 124, pl. XXXI, ill.
.
Galerie Georges Petit. Catalogue des Armes et Armures Faisant Partie de la Collection Spitzer. Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, June 10–14 1895. p. 41, no. 187, ill. in unnumbered plate at rear of volume.
Christie, Manson & Woods. Catalogue of the Important Collection of Objects of Art, Antiquities, Armour and Arms Formed by S.E. Kennedy, Esq.. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, March 18–22, 1918. no. 118.
Laking, Guy Francis, Charles A. de Cosson, and Francis Henry Cripps-Day. A Record of European Armour and Arms Through Seven Centuries. Vol. IV. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1920–1922. pp. 268–269, fig. 1332.
Bevan, [Gerard L.]. Catalogue of old English furniture, arms and armour, porcelain, old miniatures and other objects of art
Collection, sale catalogue, July 20,, 1923. Puttick and Simpson: Puttick and Simpson, 1923. no. 169.
Cripps-Day, Francis Henry. A Record of Armour Sales, 1881–1924. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1925. p. 272.
Grancsay, Stephen V. Loan Exhibition of European Arms and Armor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, August 3 to September 27, 1931. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931. p.187, no. 155, fig. 5
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"Charles Alexander, Baron de Cosson F.S.A., F.R.G.S., 1846 -1929." Journal of the Arms & Armor Society 17 pp. 268–269.
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