Spanish Swept Hilt Rapier, Early 17th C

Description

Featuring hilt of flattened oval bars, comprising large pas d’ane with upturned side-ring
extending from its base on the obverse, recurved quillons each widening toward the end,
knuckle-guard with bird’s head terminal, faceted fig-shaped pommel with tang button, and
octagonal-section grip bound with twisted iron wire and finished with Turk’s heads top and
bottom. Slender, 41 1/2″ (105.4 cm) blade of diamond section, with 9″ central fuller
stamped “*JOhannes ALIch(?)**” on one side, and “*SOLInGen****” on the other; deeply
stamped crown over circle over “T” on the obverse ricasso. These markings are rather
confusing, as the ricasso mark is one used by Toledo smiths, not those of Solingen. While
there are many German smiths with the first name Johannes (Latin form), none are
recorded with last name “ALIch”, or similar. Also, the mixture of uppercase and lower case
letters is very unusual, as most blades of the era were stamped with all upper case letters.
Since it was common for blade signatures to be faked at the time, it would not be unusual to
use several different well-recognized marks to represent quality. Overall length 47 3/4″
(121.3 cm). Metal parts with scattered pitting and even gunmetal gray patina.