‡ A FINE GERMAN (SAXON) RAPIER, CIRCA 1570-80 with sharply tapering blade of flattened-oval section, stamped with the sacred trigram ‘IHS' within a short slender fuller on each face, recessed ricasso struck on each face with the bladesmith's marks, a crowned serpent and a celestial motif, its borders framed by incised lines and the fuller continuing over its length, blued steel hilt of flattened iron bars, comprising écusson, the inner numbered ‘5’, upper and lower heart-shaped ring-guards, a pair of vertically recurved quillons with pointed terminals, trifurcated inner guard, barrel-shaped pommel with button, early, probably original, leather-covered wooden grip with ‘Turk’s heads’ and plaited trellis binding, and some original finish throughout, 95.7 cm blade Provenance A New York Estate, sold Sotheby’s Los Angeles, 3rd July 1973, lot 256 Howard M. Curtis (no. 486) The bladesmith’s marks are those of Abraham Schuch or Schuech of Dresden. See Seitz 1968, p. 36. A number of similar rapiers, supplied to the Saxon Electoral Guard, are preserved in the Historisches Museum, Dresden. See Norman 1980, p. 117. Another sword from this group, with the same bladesmith’s marks, was sold American Art Association, 20th November 1926, lot 276.