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The Louvre School, about 1590. Ex collections: Vassali and Meyrick. Wallace Collection (Laking Catalogue, No. 661)

English collection. One of the two in the Wallace Collection (Fig. 1318), and the specimen in the private collection (Fig. 1320), very closely resemble the Windsor example, inasmuch as both have central spikes around which the motif of battle scenes is represented. These shields have never been damascened with gold or silver; but rely upon their fine surface chasing alone for their decoration. There is, however, the remains of surface gilding on the example, No. 661, of the Wallace Collection (Fig. 1319), which shows a slightly different form of rondache, having no central spike, and thus allowing a larger field in the centre for the subject, as in the case of the Charles IX and so-called Henri II examples in the Louvre. It was exhumed in France. Although it has suffered considerably from rust oxidization and from the pickaxe which struck through it, breaking it into three parts, it still remains a record of the ultra-refinement of embossed ironwork. From the slight traces which remain it can be seen that its whole surface was