Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/355

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and on the two plates of the saddle steel. But on the three last-named pieces it is embossed instead of being simply etched.

This suit is composed of two close helmets, an open helmet, and a breastplate for the field provided with its lance-rest, and its taces and tassets of four lames. There is also a breastplate for the joust with its taces and tuille-like tassets in a single piece, the left one being longer than the right. On to this breastplate are screwed the tilting chin-piece and the manteau d'armes. The arm-guards consist in espaliers, rere- and vambraces, and gauntlets. The right-hand espalier is provided with a rondelle, and the elbow-cop of the left side has a powerful strengthening piece for the joust. The right gauntlet has the fingers separate; the left being a large tilting mitten of heavy proportions, and protecting the bridle hand and fore-arm. The cuisses are composed of seven lames; the jambs terminate at the ankle. The sollerets are of mail and have steel toe-caps. The following reinforcing plates belong to the suit, strengthening it for use in the field: a crest for the top of the helmet, Spanish in shape, and called an escofia or sobre-calva (Fig. 1207), a spare chin-piece for the left side and part of the right side of the visor, a strengthening piece for the left pauldron furnished with a little neck-guard, and a piece for strengthening the elbow-cop on the same side. This suit is accompanied by its demi-chanfron and by two plates for the saddle-bow of the fighting or joust saddle. We should here record that after the sale of this suit from the Londesborough Collection, and previous to it passing into that of the Duc de Dino, the ornamentation of all the parts was subject to re-gilding, a process of restoration which is much to be regretted. Represented in our illustration of this suit is a circular shield which, though it is the work of the same school of armourers, is not actually in accord with the rest of the harness.

Before we allude to the second suit of armour of this same school in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, we will here make mention of a very beautiful half suit, accessible to all English collectors, to be seen in the Wallace Collection, No. 428 (Fig. 1069). In the descriptive catalogue which he made for that collection the author described this armament as being probably the work of Wolf of Landshut. He now admits his error and unhesitatingly attributes the harness to the workshops of the Kolman family; but he assigns its workmanship and style to the direct influence of Koloman, rather than of Desiderius, Kolman. As now seen, it terminates at the waist, and all that is preserved is without restoration of any kind. Its elegant outline, the excellence of its workmanship, and the