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Probably central Europe, early XVIth century

Collection: Mr. Felix Joubert

Guanti di presa, with a lining of riveted chain mail. Italian, middle of XVIIth century

Collection: Mr. W. H. Fenton, now in the collection of Dr. Bashford Dean

They are shown in Burgkmair's "Triumph of Maximilian"; they also frequently figure on the armament of the landsknecht class depicted in the Swiss stained glass of the first half of the XVIth century. A very excellent illustration of the tippet of mail in use, together with a three-quarter suit of armour, is given in the woodcut of a landsknecht captain after the engraver I-D. 1545 (Fig. 529). We illustrate two actual examples: One (Fig. 530) is in our own collection, a cape of the "Bishop's Mantle" type, so possibly Venetian; the other (Fig. 531), in the collection of Mr. Felix Joubert, is somewhat ampler and composed of rather larger links, a circumstance which suggests that it is of Austrian fashion, and dates within the first half of the XVIth century. Probably the latest instance of chain mail being used in European military armament was its employment as a lining to the ''guanti di presa'' of the duellist. These were either ordinary left-hand gauntlets lined with mail (Figs. 584, 585), or a leather glove, the palm of which was composed of chain mail; the purpose they served being to enable the combatant to