with tapering double-edged blade formed in three sections, flattened-diamond section towards the tip, flattened-hexagonal in the centre and long forte with blunt edges struck ‘Sandrinus Scacchus’ within a long central fuller framed by two further shorter fullers, rectangular ricasso struck with a profile head on each face, iron hilt of flattened rounded bars, comprising down-curved quillon with pointed terminal, lower ring-guard filled with a pierced engraved sprung-in plate decorated with a symmetrical arrangement of four serpents, upper ring-guard rooted to the arms at the base and joined on one side to the knuckle-guard by a further arm, trifurcated inner-guard fitted with a pierced plate en suite, pronounced faceted plummet-shaped pommel, decorated throughout with a running pattern of foliage carrying fruit and centring on flowerheads, the pommel decorated en suite and divided with delicate ropework frames (the silver with small losses, lightly rubbed in places), and wooden grip retaining an early binding of plaited wire between ‘Turk’s heads’ (small losses), 102.7 cm blade

Provenance

The Lord Astor of Hever, sold Sotheby’s, 5th May 1983, lot 8

Waldo (Bill) Gower

Alessandro Scacchi is recorded in Brescia in the second half of the 16th century. His work was highly regarded and a number of blades, such as the present, bear his name and other marks and are almost certainly not from his workshop. See Seitz 1965, p. 326 and Wallace Collection (inv. no. A613).

The distinctive silver decoration was perhaps executed in the same workshop as the hilt of another rapier now preserved in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, no. 26, fig. 29, pp. 89-91.