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German, middle of the XVIth century. The work of Sigismund Wolf of Landshut Metropolitan Museum, New York

It is surrounded by a broad border of fine etched arabesques; while the central theme of its decoration, finishing in a point in the middle, forms the centre of a large rose of similar workmanship. The ground of the etching is partly gilt, partly black. The edge, instead of being of cable design, is strongly dentated, a characteristic that is found in many arms made for Spain. While the subject of the simpler shields of German origin is under discussion, it would be well to note a very fine example also in the Dino Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York (Fig. 1315), which was formerly considered to have come from the same Landshut workshops, but which now, from the evidence of its decoration, must have been part of the fine harness made for the famous Sir John Smythe by the armourers whom we have claimed as English and forming the Greenwich school (ante, chap. xxix), but whose works are so strongly under German influence. As we state (on page 39, Fig. 1119), the actual suit to which this example belongs is now wholly in the Tower of London, and we know there was a
 * mund Wolf of Landshut, though doubtless it was made to be sent to Spain.