Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/234

 made use of five thousand five hundred, irrespective of bosses and buckles. Half the nails or rivets had heads of bright silver in the shape of crescents, in other cases the rivets were round and gilt, doubtless in some allusion to the sun and moon.

Though so different in type from the knightly plate armour that had by this time made its almost complete appearance, these two suits of brigandine so carefully described by Etienne de la Fontaine must have been of the greatest beauty. They doubtless fitted perfectly, and their workmanship is beyond reproach.

Early XVIth century. Porte de Hal, Brussels

(a) An example covered with crimson velvet and studded with gilt nails

(b) An interior view of another, showing the plate lining

In the collection of the late Mr. Charles T. D. Crews there used to be a painting by Dirk Bouts (Fig. 535), the shutter or wing of an altar-piece, which represents Gideon and the Fleece. It was executed, we may suppose, about 1470. Gideon is wearing plate brassards over which hang the very ample sleeves of a chain mail shirt. Over this again is a magnificent brigandine of cloth of gold, studded with gilt rivets. Though this coat of defence fails