example, simply constructed, but of a representative type of about 1420. In that wonderful and mysterious collection of Graf G. Trapp in Schloss Churburg, near Innsbrück, is a pair of hour-glass gauntlets, edged with a latten band, engraved, and bearing an inscription in Gothic letters, which are actually shown in company with the original bascinet helmet of the suit for which they were made. Unfortunately we have been unable to obtain a photograph of these last-named specimens.
There was a type of gauntlet that appeared late in the XIVth century which may be considered the forerunner of the fingered gauntlet of the latter part of the XVth century. Not a single specimen of this kind is extant; but in the fine brass of Sir George Felbrigge, which dates from about 1400, an illustration of a good example of the type (Fig. 570) can be seen. The cuff is very short and bell-like in form, although this feature is not exaggerated. The fingers, the plates of which are curved round to afford the hand a better protection and are not merely flat scales attached to the leather glove, are here riveted to the top of the main plate in the fashion of all later gauntlets. On both finger joints are gads, which are beautifully faceted and brought to a point. The last plate of each finger is engraved to represent a finger-nail, a practice that at this period seems to have been not uncommon and is frequently represented. Although, as in the case of most armour of this period, the actual metal field of the gauntlets was not worked upon, nevertheless a fine scheme of decoration was often carried out by means of applied plates of enamel and settings of jewels. Such enrichments are very clearly shown in the hand-coloured engravings of the effigies of this period represented in the early editions of Stothard's "Monumental Effigies." He has pictured the colours of the enamel and of the jewels, etc., which he was able to do from the traces of decoration which he found when he was engaged in examining the effigies late in the XVIIIth century.
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Fig. 571. From the brass of Richard Dixton, Esq.
About 1430. Cirencester Church, Gloucestershire
