Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/256



Italian, Milanese, about 1460 Collection: Sir Edward Barry, Bart.

Possibly French, about 1470 No. 27, Wallace Collection

Gothic harnesses which were in almost universal wear in civilized Europe, excepting perhaps in Italy and Spain, towards the end of the XVth century. Three fine gauntlets of this type are to be seen in the Wallace Collection (Nos. 27, 28, and 29, Figs. 574, 575, and 576); while a pair of this kind is on the suit No. 340. This pair is especially interesting, as upon the cuff is an armourer's mark that might possibly be that of Adrian Treytz of Mühlen, near Innsbrück, and so would date the gauntlets as having been made between 1480 and 1500 (Fig. 577). On examining a gauntlet of this type it will be noticed that the cuff has grown longer—indeed, in some cases it extends almost to the coude plates—and ends in a point; it only widens sufficiently to fit over the vambrace. The flat formation of these gauntlets is also remarkable, as is also the fact of their being in many cases without the under-plate of the cuff, in substitution of which they are strapped to the vambrace in the oriental fashion. The metacarpal plates are carefully modelled, occasionally delicately designed with tracery at the edge, and often enriched with latten (Fig. 575). This type of hand defence sometimes terminated in plates of the mitten type, as in the case of the specimen just described and like an example in the author's collection (Fig. 578); but more often the fashion of separate or of twin fingers was adopted, in which case gad-like plates protected the finger joints. These pointed gads are shown in a
 * tective power, is the long and shapely metal glove seen on those flamboyant