Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/76

Fig. 383. Salade

North Italian, about 1500. It bears an armourer's mark of the Missaglia family

No. G 8, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

Fig. 384. Salade

North Italian, about 1500, etched and gilt.

From a suit numbered G 9, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

the bellows form, with a few longitudinal slits for breathing purposes. The surface is now blue-black in colour—perhaps as originally produced. It is also delicately etched with ornamental designs of acanthus leaves, upon which are traces of gilding. This fine and rare salade, certainly one of the greatest treasures of the armoury at Malta, was, until the re-arrangements made there by the present writer, set upon one of the three-quarter suits of XVIIth century armour which once lined the walls of the gallery. The head-piece, together with the suit, had received from time to time coats of paint, entirely obscuring the delicate etching, which only appeared on the former after it had been subjected to several baths of potash and hot water. We consider that this salade dates within the last quarter of the XVth century. Milan was probably the place of its manufacture; for, although it is unmarked, it closely resembles certain head-pieces of the Missaglia school, as, for instance, the salade in the Musée d'Artillerie of Paris, which appears upon a suit numbered G 8. This helmet we know to be actually the work of a Missaglia, as it bears the mark of that family several times repeated (Fig. 383). It has a reinforcing plate riveted to the skullpiece. Two other salades of the same nature are also to be seen in the Musée d'Artillerie (Figs. 384 and 385). Both, however, show certain differ-