2-738-976 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Rapier, c. 1620-1630. This weapon has an especially handsome configuration of hilt, pommel, quillons, and guard. The blade is also very finely wrought and bears the mark (a unicorn head) of the German swordsmith, Clemens Horn, of Solingen, a town near Düsseldorf. The Latin inscription on the blade reads in translation: "Neither without cause, nor fearfully/Between arms and silent law/ Prize truth and the fight for one's country."