Silver Inlaid North European Rapier from Hever Castle, ca. 1630

Description

Iron hilt of flattened oval-section bars with vertically recurved quillions expanding toward the ends with button finials; large side ring; the reverse of round-section bars with thumb ring; and flattened pear-shaped pommel. Hilt entirely encrusted with silver on a blackened background, including a running pattern of foliage, fish on the quillon terminals, a dragon being slayed by an armored figure on the obverse face of the pommel and the multi-headed hound of Hades Cerberus on the reverse. The grip bound with plaited wire and finished with Turks heads top and bottom. Double-edged tapering 35 3/4” (90.8 cm) blade of flattened hexagonal section with 6 1/2” central fuller stamped “XX MADERET XX” on each side with a stamped anchor mark at the fuller’s end. Overall length 41 1/2” (105.4 cm). Blade with light pitting; small collection label “143” on blade and inside of side ring; silver lightly worn in spots, but excellent overall. The 1983 Hever Castle Sale catalog suggests that the silver was applied later, though we have no idea how this was determined, other than by its exceptional state of preservation. This style rapier carried by cavalry under the command of Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years War. Provenance: The Lord Astor of Hever, The Hever Castle Collection, sold Sotheby’s, 5th May 1983, lot 129. Generally known simply as the “Hever Castle Sale”, this sale is considered to be perhaps the most important sale of arms and armor in the modern era.