Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/383

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

with its saddle steels, chanfron, etc., and the other a harness complete to the waist (A 291 and B 1). Alas, fine and ultra elaborate as they are, excellent examples, too, of metal embossing, they illustrate only too well the decadent work which this admirable Milanese armourer turned out when he was forced to pander to the florid taste of the closing years of the XVIth century.

We are glad to be able, through the kindness of Mr. Lionel Harris, to give an illustration of the saddle steels by Antonio Picinino which were in the collection of the late Earl Kitchener (Fig. 1088a). They had been presented to him by the late Mr. Alfred Rothschild.

Fig. 1088a. Saddle steels

The work of Antonio Picinino. Collection: the late Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, K.G.