Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/357

 restrained method of its decoration, render it, in our opinion, one of the most precious possessions of the Wallace Collection. Sir Richard Wallace obtained it with that portion of the Count de Nieuwerkerke Collection which he purchased en bloc. Before it formed part of the Nieuwerkerke Collection it was in the possession of Monsieur E. Juste, a pedigree that takes it back almost to the end of the first half of the XIXth century. If its previous history could be traced it is more than likely that it would turn out to be one of the harnesses already alluded to which were abstracted from the Royal Spanish Collection early in the XIXth century. Perhaps, when the remainder of the suit comes to light in Madrid or elsewhere, and some record is discovered of the original ownership of this remainder, we shall get some clue which will enable us to trace the history of this beautiful half harness.

To proceed to an account of the suit. The edges of the various plates are recessed to a fine scale pattern; a band of the same work follows the contour of the border; inside this band is an embossed escalloped edging. The plain surfaces on the coudes and taces are either embossed or recessed with trefoil panels. The whole of the borders and panels are etched and gilt with scrollwork, cornucopiae, etc. The form of the armour presents no peculiarities; though in the construction of the elbow defences an arrangement can be seen whereby the point of an adversary's weapon is prevented from becoming fixed beneath the elbow-cops. This is effected by the elongation to a flanged form of the under plate of the vambrace, which is thus made to cover the lower lame and part of the cop itself. We have illustrated the close helmet on this suit in Fig. 1188.

We will now return to the armoury of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and examine the second German-Spanish suit to which we have referred on page 313 (Fig. 1070). The provenance of this suit we are able to trace to the sale held at Christie's in 1839, and so know that previous to that date it was in the Royal Armoury of Madrid. In the Christie sale it was lot 264 in the catalogue, when it fetched £95 11s.; after some years it found its way into the celebrated Fountaine Collection of Narford Hall, Norfolk, subsequently passing into that of the Duc de Dino, and so to the Metropolitan Museum of New York. According to the pieces worn, this suit could be used for the joust, as a demi-armour for light horse, or for fighting on foot; it also comprises a series of saddles, chanfrons, and lance-rondelles. The various parts of this suit which are still preserved in Madrid would suffice to arm five figures: they are numbered A 243 to A 262 in the official catalogue. The late Count de Valencia believed that this armour, which is