Targe de poing, targhette da Pugno, pour... - Lot 70 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Targe de poing, targhette da Pugno, pour le combat avec une rapière ou une dague main-gauche, Italie vers 1540-60. A rare Italian buckler intended for fighting with a rapier or left-hand dagger, Targhette da Pugno, circa 1540-60. With small rectangular wooden body formed with a rounded central gutter and forward-swept sides, the inner face covered in vellum, a slender iron two-part frame fitted around the border and following the inner contour, iron handle formed of four branches with coarsely finished openwork finials attached to the corners of the body, the upper pair of branches formed with thumb-rests for use with either hand, and fitted with a pair of wooden grip-scales at the centre, the outer face covered with black leather on a vellum lining, the edges folded over the inner face, studded with a series of flat iron nails for attaching the interior frame and the handle, and with an iron hook for catching the opponent's blade. H.: 31.7 cm - W.: 27.5 cm. The provision for two thumb-rests would have enabled the user to carry the buckler in his left hand if fighting with a rapier, or in his right if fighting with a dagger conventionally carried in left hand. For a very similar example see BOCCIA, Lionello G. & COELHO, Eduardo. T., Armi Bianche Italiane, 1975, No. 436-437, p.378