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Even in similar manner the blade of
the court sword followed a line of
special or decadent changes. Since
it was seldom used, it became little
less than a symbol of potency, shrinking
in length and breadth, attaining in
the end a delicate lance-like form
whose use suggested rather the fingers
of a surgeon than the wrist of a fencer.
In similar manner may be traced in
the present objects a gradation in
the ornaments of the hilt which were
dictated by time and country and which
in the end provide data for the specialist
who would classify court swords as
he would stuffs, coins, or porcelains.
(page 5) Thus, among numerous
varieties, he may pick out at a glance
the blued and ajouré steel hilts of
the Restoration; the knuckle guards
of the time of William and Mary; the
"Tonkin" swords (made, as Mr. Reubell
notes, in Peking) in the fashion of
eighteenth- century chinoiserie, French,
Dutch, and English; the porcelain
hilts of Saxony; bronze-gilt bulbous
grips common in German courts of 1750-1780;
the graceful rococo hilts of the epoch
of Louis XV, which became standardized
to such a degree that even (page
6) a great expert is today
hardly able to distinguish the French
from the Italian, from the Spanish,
even from the Northern fashions; the
delicate cut steel and beaded hilts
of the English, some studded with
enamel or Wedgwood; the delicate hilts
of Spain of 1820, minuscule, the grip
delicately plated with nacre, ajouré
in patterns like the filmy blade of
a fan-and hardly more serviceable,
for one imagines how they would have
crumbled to pieces in the strong hand
of a seventeenth-century duelist!
The relations of early 'court swords,
one to the other, may best be explained
by means of a diagram (fig. 2) which
includes the modifications of forms
from the seventeenth century to the
beginning of the nineteenth, as shown
in the hilt. In similar manner the
sequence in blades might be worked
out, although this is the more difficult
problem; for one reason, the blades
of court swords in their many varieties
have frequently been transposed, even
during the eighteenth century, and
we have yet to study the dates of
certain types.
Concerning the history of hunting swords
a brief reference is given on p. 65.
In the present descriptions of court
swords attention is called to the
variations from the usual hilt, shown
for example in Plate XI. In such a
hilt(1) the pommel, an ovoid or spherical
element, has a vase-like base and
a button-shaped terminal as a support
for the swaged-out tip of the blade's
tang. The guard is bilobate with slightly
raised rim. The ricasso is rounded,
rectangular in section, joining the
guard with a rectangular molding.
The pas d'âne is functional, the loops
joining the guard either at or slightly
within its border. A single quillon
is present with flattened rounded
enlarged end which droops towards
the blade and turns slightly towards
the right. The knuckle guard, which
extends to the pommel, is round in
section at its extremities, but in
its middle region flattened and enlarged.
The grip contains a wooden core, is
elliptical in section, tapering with
approximate symmetry from middle to
ends: it is enclosed in a wire binding
held in place at the ends by braided
wire ferrules, like turbans, and known
as "Turks' heads." These consist of
braided grommets of wire, formed each
of three flat bands of several individual
strands of single or, more often,
of braided or twisted wire.
(1)In earlier swords, even when complicated
guards are present, the hilt is made
up of but three separate elements
- grip, pommel, and guard, the last
including knuckle guard, quillons,
and guard. The ricasso as a separate
element does not exist save, in cases,
as a short leather binding.
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