Sword

Sword, the hilt made up of a pierced pommel, with a scroll on either side; oval grip of pinewood (a restoration); crossguard curving towards the point and pierced with scrolls at the ends en suite with the pommel; single side-ring of large size, similarly pierced; the whole minutely decorated with delicate arabesques overlaid in gold on a darkened ground, the pommel incised with double-headed eagles, the edges overlaid with a pearled ornament; the long double-edged blade of flattened diamond section, singly fullered along the whole length, with triple grooving near the hilt; the ricasso stamped on each side with a maker's mark; a crowned B/A.

The bold, openwork hilt is of a type commonly found in Spanish collections, e.g,. no. G 55 in the Real Armeria at Madrid. C. Blair (personal communication, 1964) pointed out that the chiselling of the hilt resembles that on the English crossbow in the Real Armeria at Madrid (no. J111; see Reid, Connoisseur, 146, 1960, pp. 21-6, figs. 5 and 7).