‡ A COMPOSITE RAPIER, EARLY 17TH CENTURY, PROBABLY ITALIAN

‡ A COMPOSITE RAPIER, EARLY 17TH CENTURY, PROBABLY ITALIAN with associated blade of flattened-diamond section, signed 'Monte En Toledo' between a series of decorative marks within a pair of short fullers on each face, rectangular ricasso inscribed 'Picinino' in an oval around a shield on each face, iron hilt of rounded bars including straight quillons with spirally-fluted bud-shaped terminals, three outer ring-guards each interrupted with a central moulding en suite with the quillon terminals, the upper most with an additional moulding either side and joined at the top to the knuckle-guard, knuckle-guard en suite, four-part inner-guard, spirally-fluted pommel, and later moulded iron grip, the principle bars decorated with punched scrolls and traces of gold and silver decoration, 117.5 cm blade Provenance Prince Peter Soltykoff, Paris William H. Riggs, included in his bequest to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1913 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, sold Sotheby’s New York, 31 January 1997, lot 444.