Rapière à singulier décor ciselé, doré et... - Lot 201 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Rapière à singulier décor ciselé, doré et damasquiné, dans le goût d'Augsbourg vers 1590-1600, en partie de la fin du XVIe - début du XVIIe siècle. An unusually ornate rapier, chiselled, gilt and damascened in the Augsburg fashion of circa 1590-1600, partly late 16th-early 17th century. With early 17th century North Italian Rapier blade engraved with a bladesmith's large oval mark on both sides of the ricasso (rubbed and lightly pitted), large russet-iron hilt of slender bars damascened on both sides with a delicate gold pattern formed of pairs of monster-head scrolls arranged as a chain-like series of linked ovals, punctuated by large chiselled oval cartouches with gold-damascened borders (apparently added), each filled with different finely chiselled relief vignettes of figures from Roman antiquity in combat, the chiselled subjects in striking contrast against a gilt ground, with hexagonal pommel decorated en suite and rising to a chiselled button, the borders studded with minute gold pellets throughout, the inner-guard constructed of plain gilt slender rounded bars, and with spirally moulded wire-bound grip. L. overall: 113.9 cm - L. blade: 97.5 cm. Hilts made by Augsburg goldsmiths and iron chisellers in the late 16th and early 17th centuries are characterised by the inclusion of fine damascening and prominently large plaques or cartouches filled with minutely chiselled figural subjects, invariably from Roman antiquity or mythology, and most often on a vibrant gilt ground