Thanks very much Fernando, my best wishes for very Happy Holidays to you as well!
The Wallace Collection work by Sir James Mann is of course superb! and of course I use this reference as much as you do as it offers comprehensive details on arms and especially markings that are unmatched in other sources.
I must apologize for the reference I used being cause for such consternation, and used it as it was actually at hand in some research on fencing at the moment.
Actually the book by Egerton Castle I referenced was written by him in 1885, just after his contemporary Sir Richard Burton wrote his "Book of the Sword" in 1884. While Burton, like Castle, was Master of Arms, he had chosen to focus on the sword forms of the world, without attention to the actual manner in use.
Castle, decided he would write on that aspect, the actual use.
In Castle's book, he inscribed it to BARON DE COSSON and CAPT A HUTTON, his colleagues, "....in recollection of many hours spent with the former, among old books and old arms, with the latter in the fencing room, foil in hand".
Both Castle and Hutton were Masters at Arms who studied, practiced and taught historical fencing, and both military men who were brilliant swordsmen.
BARON CHARLES ALEXANDER deCOSSON (1846-1929) was hardly just some collector. He was well known as a HIGH authority on the subject of ancient arms and armor.......also WARING FAULDER was another of the most experienced connoisseurs of the time, with both of these men offering weapons from their magnificent collections for Egerton's book.
While the plate of photos is of course 'poor quality' (early 1880s) and the cataloging might have been more precise to each weapon, it was still significant at the time. The 'cinqueda' among these you will note was termed an 'anelace'. This term applied to a type of large dagger carried by English gentlemen in the 14th c.
The arms writer Auguste Demmin (1877) used that term to describe the Italian cinquedea, so likely it was carried forth by Castle here.
So not at all discounting what you are saying, however my point was there was not any clear distinction in styling of these daggers apparent from the late 16th century well into the 17th. I had hoped my entry and images would have illustrated what I was saying.
What is fascinating to me is that Egerton Castle; Baron de Cosson; Capt. Alfred Hutton; Sir Richard Burton were all contemporaries who were deeply involved in the study of ancient arms and armor, in particular, the sword, and actually used them..........not just reading of them in books.
Incidentally all of these men wrote the books that many of us have used in our own studies, as they set the foundations for the study of arms as it stands today.
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