AN ITALIAN SWEPT-HILT RAPIER, EARLY 17TH CENTURY with tapering blade of flattened-hexagonal then flattened-diamond section, retaining traces of a stamped inscription within a short fuller on each face, tapering ricasso engraved with a maker's mark on each side, chiselled steel hilt formed of a symmetrical arrangement of moulded bars comprising a pair of vertically recurved quillons with bulbous terminals each pierced with an elaborate pattern of interlacing branches, triangular écusson, knuckle-guard, outer ring-guard joined to the knuckle-guard by an additional bar, two lower ring-guards of diminishing size, the lower fitted with a pierced sprung-in plate (the outer missing its plate), a pair of arms, globular pommel pierced with an elaborate pattern of interlacing twigs matching the quillons, and the bars all interrupted with globular mouldings pierced en suite with the quillons and pommel (later grip, pitted and cleaned throughout) 112cm; 44in blade Provenance Warwick Castle, Inv. no. E034, sold in these rooms 26th June 2007 lot 251