Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/140

 characteristics to which we have alluded. It is etched with bands of various thicknesses containing groups of crudely rendered animals and trophies of arms and armour, etc., a mode of decoration which, though generally known as "Pisan," is in its finer form found mainly on the work of Pompeo della Chiesa of Milan. This form of ornamentation, from the very unsystematic method in which the motifs used are arranged, has, as already mentioned, among English collectors earned the derisive nickname of "mops and brooms pattern." In the case of this example the trophies are finely gilt, whilst the field has been blued. On a helmet formerly in Mr. Ernest Kennedy's Collection we find the etching in equally good condition. Of all the armour that comes into the market to-day this type is the one most frequently met with; but the specimens are as a rule in a poor state of preservation, often having been eaten into with rust and then overcleaned.

Italian in form, but probably of French workmanship (Louvre school), about 1570-80 H 259, Musée d'Artillerie

Another helmet which we illustrate has the same form, but its surface is enriched with a better type of etching, viz., narrow bands of scrollwork more in the true Milanese manner (Fig. 1198). Its date is about 1570. It is now in the collection of Mr. S. J. Whawell, who obtained it from that of