Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/208



With applied enrichments of copper gilt in the style of Alessandro Algardi, but of German workmanship, about 1600-10 Tower of London, Class IV, No. 154

Tower Armoury, where it forms part of a small harness, consisting of a breastplate, gorget, and burgonet made for King Charles II when a boy. It will be noted that the surface is tooled with various trophies of arms, etc., and thickly plated with silver. The old inventories state that it was once "Richly Gilt." We give as our final illustration of this class of head-pieces a German early XVIIth century casque, which is also contained in the Tower of London (Fig. 1262). This is a decadent form of the armourer's craft, the skull-piece being fashioned in two halves and joined down the front; but it has a certain charm of colour and a fertility of design as regards its ornamentation that are not altogether unpleasing. The actual foundation of the helmet is thin iron of a strangely blue-grey colour, embossed with that somewhat lumpy form of decoration which is sometimes seen on the works of the famous metal worker and enameller, Jamnitzer (Christoph). On this foundation applied, in copper gilt, are recumbent classical figures among