Spanish Swept Hilt Rapier, Early 17th C

Featuring hilt of flattened oval bars, comprising large pas d’ane with upturned side-ring extending from its base on the obverse, recurved quillons each widening toward the end, knuckle-guard with bird’s head terminal, faceted fig-shaped pommel with tang button, and octagonal-section grip bound with twisted iron wire and finished with Turk’s heads top and bottom. Slender, 41 1/2″ (105.4 cm) blade of diamond section, with 9″ central fuller stamped “*JOhannes ALIch(?)**” on one side, and “*SOLInGen****” on the other; deeply stamped crown over circle over “T” on the obverse ricasso. These markings are rather confusing, as the ricasso mark is one used by Toledo smiths, not those of Solingen. While there are many German smiths with the first name Johannes (Latin form), none are recorded with last name “ALIch”, or similar. Also, the mixture of uppercase and lower case letters is very unusual, as most blades of the era were stamped with all upper case letters. Since it was common for blade signatures to be faked at the time, it would not be unusual to use several different well-recognized marks to represent quality. Overall length 47 3/4″ (121.3 cm). Metal parts with scattered pitting and even gunmetal gray patina.