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Possibly late XIIIth century Collection: Sir Farnham Burke, K.C.V.O.

Gilded iron, set with coloured stones, formerly supposed to have belonged to Louis XI. It is, however, in our opinion, of late XVIth century workmanship. Museum of the town of Bourges

wide bars and large plain bosses, it is a fine example of the applied art of the time. In Sir Farnham Burke's Collection is a simple snaffle bit, an undecorated example we admit, but so fine and simple in outline that we think it worth illustrating (Fig. 966). We should assign it to the latter part of the XIIIth century. Shown now in the museum of the town of Bourges, and formerly preserved in the Treasury of the Cathedral of that town, is a bit that has always been known as "the horse bit of Louis XI." We doubt, however, whether there is valid reason for accepting it as belonging to the end of the XVth century. Judging by its very formation, we should say that a date somewhere within the closing years of the XVIth century would