Weapons may be divided into two classes, those made for the rank and file being plain and coarse; while an immense amount of artistic skill, frequently of the very highest order, was lavished during the later middle ages and the “renaissance” on the decoration of swords, daggers, crossbows, and staff weapons generally, as well as on armour of proof, for leaders and the higher classes. The hilts of both swords and daggers were richly chased and decorated in high relief with mouldings and even statuettes, while the blades were often inlaid as well as engraved. Even artists like Holbein and Albert Dürer exercised their utmost skill in designing for such work. A beautiful example is given in Fig. 40 of a sword that belonged to the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol. [Illustration: Fig. 40.--Enriched Sword, second half Sixteenth Century.] The pageant weapons of a prince’s guard, though formed like those used in actual warfare, were especially rich in this respect; and the stocks of crossbows, which afforded great scope for ornamentation, were not only beautifully inlaid with bleached stag’s horn, ivory, and mother-of-pearl, but often adorned with mythological, historic, or biblical legends, carried out with rare elegance and finish. The great German smiths--Hans, Jörg, and Conrad Seusenhofer, Brockberger, Lorenz Kolman, Conrad Lochner, Swartz, Jörg Endorfer, Klemens Horn, Peter Munich, Wilhelm Wirsberg, etc., etc.; and the Italians--Antonio and Tomaso da Missaglia, Philippo Ciro, Giacomo and Francesco Nigroli, Ghinelli, Spacino, Antonio and Lucio Piccinino, and many others, vied with each other in the production of consummate creations of workmanship and art, some of them in armour of proof, others in offensive weapons, and many in both; and if the palm of excellence may perchance be awarded to the latter nation for originality and delicacy in design and finish, surely the Germans were but little if anything behind their confrères beyond the Alps in all these respects. The swords of Bordeaux and Poitiers were now far behind those of Toledo in renown, and the great Spanish masters, such as Antonio Ruiz, 1520; Juan de Almau, 1550; Francisco Ruiz, 1617; Tomas de Ayala, 1605; Sebastian Hermandez, 1637; and hosts of others rendered their cities and country illustrious by the excellence and beauty of their workmanship. Still, strangely enough, quantities of Solingen blades were imported into Spain during these centuries; for it will be noticed that the majority of rapiers picked up by collectors in that country have these German blades. The marks used by these smiths and many others may be found in the _Catálogo de la Armeria de Madrid_, and in a work by the learned curator of the Imperial collection at Vienna, entitled, _Meister der Waffenschmiedekunst von xiv. bis xvii. Jahrhundert_, and in the excellent catalogue of the Königl. Historische Museum at Dresden, compiled by Herr Max von Ehrenthal, the accomplished curator.