Made for the gauntleted hand. Iron hilt with scroll terminal cross guard supporting a pair of arms with oval rings both sides connected by bars to the cross guard. Large olive form pommel. Fine copper and iron wire wrapped grip. 33 1/2" blade with fullered forte marked SEBASTIAN HERNANDEZ/IN TOLEDO. See Wallace Collection Catalog p.273, item A532 for a rapier marked by that maker dated C.1620, and two further examples A549 and A641. The scroll terminal cross guard is characteristic of English rapiers of the 1635-55 period. See Norman Hilt 87, 90 and 91. The general form is a late manifestation of an earlier form. See Norman Hilt 39 "from the third quarter of the 15th century to the 1630s," Hilt 41 "last half of the 15th century to about 1620" and Hilt 43 C.1550-1630. This sword dates to the years leading up to the English Civil Wars, a period fraught with civil turmoil and political intrigue which provided a setting for duels among the elite, nobility and royalty.