Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/282

 gold. The whole centre of the shield is occupied with an upright panel, roughly oval in shape, embossed and finely chased in low relief with the representation of a desperate encounter at the ford of some swiftly-flowing river, on the opposite bank of which are to be seen in fine perspective the pitched tents of an army. The space between the central panel and the edge of the shield is utilized as a field for the display of that strangely arranged strapwork which can also be seen on the Colbert casque (Fig. 1285). Pieces of artillery, trophies of arms, bound captives, and swags of fruit in splendid but littered confusion are placed between the straps; while a large mask above and a large mask below complete the composition. The whole of the groundwork of the border is engraved with foliated scrollwork. Surprisingly rich in effect are the opaque white and translucent enamels with which all the details are enriched. These alone, from the method of their application, proclaim the French provenance of the shield. The moulding of the border is slightly convex, and is decorated with smaller strapwork ovals containing the crowned letter K. These are on a laureated groundwork. The guilloche design peculiar to this armourer's work is very apparent in the details of the strapwork. This shield, which still retains its original velvet lining, was bought, together with the gold morion made en suite with it (Fig. 1285), by the French government in 1793 at the sale of the collection of Antoine Caesar, Duc de Choiseul-Praslin.

We give an illustration of another shield which comes from the same hand, and, as it happens, is in the same Museum—the Louvre (Fig. 1322); this is the shield belonging to the unfinished suit said to have been made for Henri II of France. We have referred to this harness (Vol. iii, page 348, Fig. 1092, and ante, page 185). The shield is in a far more finished condition than the rest of the suit. The fact that both the Louvre pageant shields have a reputed French royal provenance further strengthens our theory in the French (Parisian) origin of this particular series of pageant armour. It is remarkable that the Henri II shield has practically the same decoration as that of the Charles IX example. The strapwork, the panels, the masks, the bound captives, and the trophies are all placed in the same position; the battle scene in the centre and the ornamentation of the border are, however, different. As might have been expected, the iron medium of this so-called Henri II shield has necessitated a slightly broader treatment of the subject. The rendering of the decoration is perhaps a little earlier. The strapwork is more vigorously put in; but the figures in the battle subject, which evidently depicts some contemporary combat, for pieces of ordnance