Ishmael Dreaming

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aka the Harry announcement and all the related chat from this morning :D

Rapier

Maker: Pedro Hernandez

Dated: 1625 - 1635; 19th century (pommel)

Culture: Spanish, Seville or Toledo

Medium: iron and steel, chiselled

Measurements: blade length 115 cm; width 2.4 cm; weight 1.51 kg

Inscription: ‘PEDRO·HERNAN[DEZ]’, plus an incised mark representing a crucifix

The sword features a symmetrical swept hilt made up of a hollow, oviform pommel decorated with shells and with a button. The spirally fluted, wire-bound grip has a straight crossguard of baluster form There are three ring-guards on either side, the two forward rings enclosing shells pierced with quatrefoils, while the hilt arms are joined to the knuckle-guard by loop-guards. The pommel, the centres of the guards and the crossguard, the ends of the crossguard and the knuckle-guard are all decorated with pierced knops chiselled with cockle-shells and rosettes. The double-edged blade is of hexagonal section, the groove at the forte inscribed on each side with ‘PEDRO HERNAN[DEZ]’. The strong ricasso is stamped on each side with his mark: a crucifix. A sword with a very similar hilt was formerly in the Saxon Electoral Armoury (Sold R. Lepke, Berlin, 5 May 1927, lot 31, repr. in cat.).

Sidenotes:

Pedro Hernández was not recorded by Francisco Palomares in his list of Toledo swordsmiths published in 1762 (Seitz, Blankwaffen, II, pp. 266-7), nor apparently by Rodríguez del Canto, but a blade signed by him and bearing the mark of the Crucifixion is in the Real Armería at Madrid, no. G202.

According to de Leguina, Pedro or Pietro Hernández worked in Seville. He gives his mark as Cruz grande de brazos iguales (1897, p. 108).

A Pedro Hernández, swordsmith in Seville, died in 1596, leaving a widow, Juanna Ortiz (J. Gestaso y Pérez, Ensayo de un diccionano de los artifíces qu florecieron en Sevilla, III, 1909, p. 170).

A blade at Waddesdon Manor (Blair, 1974, no. 26) is inscribed PETRVS HERNANDEZ. It also bears the Toledo mark flanked on each side by an S, as well as the mark, presumably also spurious, of Sandro Scacchi, as on no. A613 here.

The same combination occurs on a sword in the Odescalchi collection in Rome (inv. no. 197; Carpegna 1969 no. 257).

A blade signed PIETRO HERNANDEZ, stamped with the letter S a Toledo mark, is in the Military Museum, Prague, inv. no. 1337.

Two blades in the Institute de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, are signed PIETRO HERNAN (cf. nos. 68 and 70).

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