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Lot 71*

A Very Rare Dress Sword With Rock Crystal Hilt
Circa 1650, Possibly Saxon

29 April 2010, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £7,800 inc. premium

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A Very Rare Dress Sword With Rock Crystal Hilt
Circa 1650, Possibly Saxon

With associated tapering blade of flattened hexagonal section stamped 'Francisco Ruis' within the single fuller on each side of the forte, the hilt comprising rounded quillon-block, short swelling quillons, swelling pommel and grip (cracked), all cut with flutes, and later silver-gilt washers and tang button, in later leather-covered scabbard with silver-gilt mounts en suite with those of the hilt, and retaining the original rock crystal locket
75.5 cm. blade

Footnotes

Provenance:
Die Sammlung der Markgrafen und Grossherzöge von Baden, Sotheby's, Neues Schloß, Baden-Baden, Vol. II, Kunstkammer, 5 October 1995, lot 383

A sword with an almost identical hilt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna is dated 1649 on the blade. See Wendlin Boeheim, Kunsthistorische Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses Waffensammlung, Vol. I, Vienna, 1894, pl. XXXVIII

The Dresden royal armoury contains a number of swords with rock crystal hilts, including one, given by Archduke Leopold of Austria to the Saxon Elector Georg I in 1641, also with a blade by Francisco Ruiz of Toledo. See Johannes Schöbel, Prunkwaffen aus dem Historischen Museum Dresden, pl. 63b

Additional information

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