Strange flamboyant blade rapier on ebay

[fearn]

Hi All,

Since I am a botanist, I do know exactly what you mean about it not looking like a realistic pineapple (image 1). It's a figurative pineapple (image 2, a modern finial).

If you modeled a pommel on a pineapple as we see it in the store, that bunch of leaves on the top would gouge your arm every time you brushed it.

Anyway, I think Jim was right in that it was a Tyler's sword, and here's an example from the web (image 3).

If anything, the hilt on this rapier looks more like something from Mars (see image 4: John Carter's sword from Edgar Rice Burroughs), not something from Asia, at least in terms of curlicue details.

My 0.002 cents,

F

Since I swiped the image, here's a link for the artist who made that martian longsword.