‡ A FINE NORTH EUROPEAN RAPIER, CIRCA 1640

‡ A FINE NORTH EUROPEAN RAPIER, CIRCA 1640 with slender German blade formed in three stages, the long middle portion of diamond-section flattening to a double-edged spatulate point, the forte of irregular hexagonal-section, inscribed ‘Me Fecit’ and ‘Solingen’ between decorative cross marks on each face, rectangular ricasso struck with a mark, a rampant stag, on each face, symmetrical iron hilt of rounded bars, comprising vertically recurved quillons with fluted knob-shaped terminals, lower ring-guard fitted with a finely pierced sprung-in plate decorated with a series of circular and star-shaped apertures, retained at the base by a pierced bracket involving two heart-shaped apertures, upper ring-guard interrupted by a central moulding en suite with the quillons and joined to the lower by saltire bars, a pair of arms, well-formed fluted plummet-shaped pommel, and the grip with a later binding of plaited copper wire and ribband between ‘Turk’s heads’, 116.0 cm blade The mark is related to a series of similar marks attributed to the Solingen cutler Bartholomäus Meves who is recorded in that town circa 1590-1650.