These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.
Download this imageCreative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.
Production: Unknown
Rapier. Large handsome pommel, circular in plan, in the form of three superimposed 'cushions', the middle one being considerably wider than the others. There is a well-formed, collared tang-button and an elegant neck at the underneath, where the pommel meets the grip, which is of plain and (rather thicker) twisted steel wire, with Turks' heads at top and bottom. Very plain knuckle-guards of circular section, widening at the top with a trumpet-shape. It swells to a transverse ridge at midpoint and joins straight quillons of the same section. There are forged in one piece with the knuckle-guard and a plain hemispherical cup-guard. They have no widening terminals, and appear to have been cut off short. These are neither branches nor garda polvo. Decoration consists of oval panels engraved on the outside of the cup, radiating like petals from the hole where the blade enters, and there are vaguely formed floral shapes pierced à jour at the rim. The upper end of the knuckle-guard and the pommel are engraved with a few meandering and meaningless curved lines. Blade of flat oval section, strongly and decorated at the forte with an engraved wavy line. There is a strong, hollowed ricasso.
J.S. Henderson Bequest
Length: 105.4 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart
17th Century#
Circa
1650
CE
-
1680
CE
Spanish fashion, but probably Hispano-Dutch, or even Caribbean
The pommel is of far better quality than the rest of the hilt; it would appear that the knuckle-guard, quillons and cusp, all made in one, are crudely made as if by a village smith, as in the case with surviving Caribbean swords of this type.
Grip
composed of
wire
( steel)
Cup
Depth 5.9 cm
Hilt
Length 15.8 cm
Blade
Length 87.0 cm
Blade At Hilt
Width 1.7 cm
Quillons
Width 19.7 cm
Knuckle-guard
Sword
Accession number: HEN.M.239-1933
Primary reference Number: 18978
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Rapier" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/18978 Accessed: 2024-11-22 08:04:32
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/18978
|title=Rapier
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-22 08:04:32|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-18978
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa25/HEN_M_239_1933_281_29.jpg"
alt="Rapier"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Rapier</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...
