‡A SILVER-ENCRUSTED RAPIER POMMEL, EARLY 17TH CENTURY, ENGLISH OR GERMAN

‡A SILVER-ENCRUSTED RAPIER POMMEL, EARLY 17TH CENTURY, ENGLISH OR GERMAN of slightly-flattened hollow ovoid form, decorated on each face in silver with a cherubic mask, scrolling tendrils, flowers and fruit against a finely matted ground (rubbed small losses), on a turned wooden stand 8.0 cm; 3 1/8 in high Provenance S. J. Whawell, sold Sotheby & Co., 4th May 1927, lot 164 (one of twenty nine pommels) York Galleries, New York, 8th September 1927 (one of thirty-one pommels) George F. Harding Jr., Chicago Transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1982, Acc. No. 1982.3409 The Whawell catalogue states that the group was exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition.