A RARE SPANISH CROSSBOW, MID-16TH CENTURY with robust short steel bow stamped with an arrangement of marks on the left and right along the top edge, the lower case letter 'B' in a pearled circle struck three times and divided twice by the sacred trigram IHS, the inner face of the bow also struck left and right with a triangular arrangement of the circular B mark, fitted with a later string of bound and twisted cords, retained by a pair of moulded shaped irons, highly figured slender walnut tiller very slightly arched for the grip, bolt channel inlaid with bone lines on each side, the tiller with small decorative brass plaques of shaped outline and plain brass panels encasing the front and the rear, the nut and the goat's foot lugs with additional reinforces (some small brass plaques and the staghorn lines replaced), bone nut, a pair of slender iron lugs, long slender iron trigger, slender iron belt hook, and painted with an early red inventory number 81.5cm; 32in bow This bow is of similar construction to an example owned by the Emperor Charles V (d. 1558) signed by Juan de la Fuente, preserved in the Armeria Real, Madrid (inv. No. J.18). See V. de Don Juan 1898, fig.236.