full of cuts as thy sheers can make it"; and both garments were finished according to the order. The shoemaker, on receiving his gown slashed almost to shreds, began to swear at the tailor, but received for answer: "I have done nothing but what you bad me; for as Sir Philip Calthrop's gowne is, even so have I made yours." "By my latchet!" growled the shoemaker, "I will never wear gentleman's fashion again."
That splendid suit, formerly attributed to the ownership of Albrecht Achilles, Duke of Brandenburg, in the Imperial Armoury of Vienna, made under the influence of Seusenhofer, is a very sufficient instance of this ultra grotesqueness. On it can be seen a helmet which in general appearance suggests the head of some harpy of mythology. The workmanship of the whole suit is of the finest, and so cleverly has the element of the grotesque been rendered, that it has increased the protective quality, particularly of the head-piece.
The few words in which we have sought to champion in advance the wonderful protective quality and superb workmanship of these puffed, slashed, and grotesquely-proportioned harnesses, find ample justification when we come to examine the first suit of the type illustrated. The author does not attempt to deny that in point of form these types are not the expression of great artistic sense.
The harness in question is the very rare suit of armour which used to be in the Carrand, the Spitzer, and the Dino Collections, and is now to be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (Fig. 1039). Although it has been brought to its present complete aspect by restorations, the restorations are straightforward and legitimate. Helmets with human faces are rare, armour with tonnlets is rarer still, and armour with puffs and slashes rarest of all; but the combination in the same suit of a face, a tonnlet, and puffs makes this a practically unique example of XVIth century grotesque armour. The whimsical, grotesque, almost barbaric aspect of this remarkable harness renders it the strangest of its kind we have come across. The steel is worked in such a manner as to imitate, as nearly as possible, the civil costume of the reign of the Emperor Maximilian I. The rere- and vambraces, and the cuisses too, reproduce the puffs and slashes of the sleeves and trunk hose, and the tonnlet or skirt is pleated to resemble some textile material; while some of the pieces, for instance the crown of the helmet, the mitten gauntlets, and the wings of the elbow- and knee-cops, are fluted after the fashion of Maximilian armour. The slashes, some of the grooves, and other parts of the armour, are etched and gilt, or simply etched, the etching here and there reproducing the pattern of brocade. The heels of the sollerets are extremely
