Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/358



Which, with the exception of the breastplate, backplate, gorget, taces, and tassets, is part of a great harness made for King Philip of Spain in about 1554 by Wolf of Landshut. Ex collection: Dino Now Metropolitan Museum, New York

one of the most comprehensive panoplies which the Royal Spanish Armoury possesses, was made for Philip, then Infante, on the occasion of his marriage with Queen Mary of England, in 1554; for the escutcheons of the chanfron show the arms of Philip II, with a shield of pretence with the English Royal Arms (Fig. 1071). The nine pieces of this armour which are now shown in the Metropolitan Museum of New York are: a finely proportioned open helmet, the complete arm defences consisting of the espaliers, the rere- and vambraces, the elbow-cops, the left gauntlet with separate fingers, the tilting mitten for the bridle hand, the full armour for the legs, comprising cuisses in two parts which could be worn either long or short, and the jambs and sollerets. A tenth piece, the brayette, was given by the Duc de Dino to the late Signor Ressman, and is now in the Bargello Museum at Florence. All these pieces are decorated with etched bands, having an undulating design of very finished workmanship gilded on a ground filled in with black pigment. In the Madrid Armoury are still two sample steel plates on which this design has been etched with two combinations of gold and black (A 261 and 262). These plates are believed to have been sent by the armourer as specimens to Philip, in order that he might select the ornamentation which pleased him best. The gorget, the backplate, the breastplate with its lance-rest, and its taces and tassets belong to a different suit of