[Phillip Smith]

Hi to Everyone,

This is my first post on this forum, I am very new to sword collecting.

Can anyone give me any information on the Arms & Armor Musketeer Rapier ?

What type of rapier is it, what would be its time period and were would it have been created and used?

Many thanks,

Phil.

[Craig Peters]

I'm not an expert on rapiers, but since no one else has responded, I will.

This rapier is a swept hilt rapier. When I first saw it, I thought it was probably late 16th to early 17th century, and the A&A description supports this dating with the mention that the sword it's based upon is from 1590 AD. From the images, it looks like this sword might be mounted with a cut and thrust blade (I'm not sure exactly what to call the blade shape) along the lines of the Munich town guard swords.

I don't know too much about where rapier blades and hilts were manufactured, so I won't say much on this. The Holy Roman Empire was still a major center for blade manufacturing, but there were other locations as well.

As for where it was used, probably almost anywhere in Europe. There are not all that many swords that can be identified as distinctively "French" or "German" in style or design instead of simply being pan-European.The only thing I can see that might point to a more geographically narrow usage is the aforementioned blade shape, which is associated to some degree with Germany.

[Phillip Smith]

Hi Craig,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply.

Your information is exactly what I am after and it will help me in my decision of whether or not to buy this sword.

I really like cut and thrust type rapiers which you have said this one is.

Again thank you very much,

Phil.

[Nathan Robinson]

Please have a look here:

http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/perman...881659|429

[Radovan Geist]

I can only agree with Craig - you´d typically call it a "swept-hilt". I also agree that their use couldn´t be restricted to a particular country - if you look around auction houses (my preferred choice is the Herman Historica, but there are many others) and museums, similar rapiers are called "German", "Italian", "Spanish" etc.

I´m attaching a picture from Herman Historica - this rapier is coming from Spain (at least, the inscription on the blade supports it), and the hilt has similar general design as the A & A Musketeer.

However, there is one difference - the A&A hilt features two pierced plates. This makes it slightly different also from the rapier posted by Nathan, which does not have the "triangular" plate on the back side. To me, these two plates make the A&A one look somewhat "German" (just a subjective feeling, because of some distant similarity with Pappenheim rapiers). I remember I have seen an original with the hilt like that somewhere, but I cannot remember where. When I find it, I will post it here.

As far as the blade is concerned, I have seen swept-hilts mounted with different kinds of blades - some slender ones, good for thrusting (see the one I´ve attached), some broad and pointy, which would be good for cut & thrust. As Craig said, the A&A version looks like the later.

[Radovan Geist]