The Sword of John Hampden(?)

[Interested Party]

Jim thank you for the pages!

I have little to contribute today. I am more mobile and getting caught up on business. I am still looking for more images of South hilts and hilts that are said to be similar to Hampden's for comparison to the works we have been discussing. I think the blade made by South for James I could be of use if I can find an image. I have been surprised that it has so far been so elusive to find online. My sole contribution today is what I believe might be the armor that was possibly en suite to the Pince of Wales sword and a portrait of him wearing said armor but with a very different sword. Does that poke a hole in the theory that sword and armor were delivered together?

I had suspected that the encrustation on the blade were not actual "laurels" as described in The Wallace Collection but pomegranates. This suspicion is given some credence by the pomegranate fruit show repeatedly throughout the armor. What is the significance of the pomegranate here? I know in colonial setting the motif was slightly altered to be a squash blossom that had indigenous religious connotations through central and north America.