A VERY RARE VENETIAN SWEPT-HILT RAPIER C.1580

This rare form is evidently unclassified in literature and a variation of the “full hilt” with the addition of a top bar joining the back quillon and made without a forward quillon.  Its general shape is suggestive of and undoubtedly linked to the schiavona, and like the schiavona, its back quillon has a horizontal twist.  The quillon block is of characteristic Venetian form, outlined with chiseling and formed as a full relief trefoil at the base.  The 38” blade chiseled with the running wolf is equally well adapted for cutting and thrusting and its large size makes it well suited for fighting from horse back.
The form with a forward quillon is identified by Norman from a portrait by Bartolommeo Passarotti.  However, he states that he knows of no actual hilt of that form.  This specimen, then, is one of very few existing if not unique.

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