images for comparison
			 
			 
			
		
		
		
			
			Some examples of the genre to start the discussion.  Line drawings show the gamut of hilt styles, from Ewart Oakeshott's European Weapons and Armour, fig 54.  The simpler Group I  guards are earlier, first third of the 16th cent.    Photoplate is of 3 German bastard swords, 16th cent., in the Tower of London Armouries ( A. R. Duffy, European Swords and Daggers in the Tower of London, plate 13 ).
		 
		
		
		
			
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
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