Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/141

 older label; for it was genuinely old and did appear something like an early harness of combined chain mail and plate. As a matter of fact it was a good suit of Turkish jazerine armour of the latter part of the XVth century. It was bought by the Tower authorities at the sale at Christie's in April 1821 of the contents of the Gothic Hall, near the Opera Colonnade in Pall Mall, an establishment of which Mr. J. A. Gwennap was apparently the proprietor. It is described with rare conviction in the catalogue as:

"The Armour of a Crusader. This ancient suit of chain mail is of the utmost rarity, being the only perfect specimen extant. It remained for centuries in Tong Castle in Shropshire from whence it was obtained by the late Dr. Green of Lichfield. It is near 700 years old, being of the time of King Stephen. It is set up, including the horse and the highly curious and elaborate armour which covers it (of which we have no memorandum, except in ancient illuminations, tapestry, etc.), together with a Norman spear and ditto mace, both of which are perfectly unique."

Having made note of this case of a genuine suit of oriental chain mail and plate masquerading as one of European origin, and so coming into the category of forgeries, we will go through the list of unblushing fakes. As we have previously remarked, we know of no actual false chain armour save that produced by our English mid-XIXth century fabricator, and we will describe three of his productions. The first is a complete suit of chain mail armour consisting of hauberk with mittens, chausses, and coif, purporting to date from the XIIth century. This is simply an impudent forgery; two other suits are both well known, which derive their origin from the same source, one being a chain mail suit with plate reinforcements, the other a harness of plate, leather, and chain in the fashion of the middle of the XIVth century.

That these three ridiculous suits could have been seriously accepted as genuine, should have been accepted, too, as they were by a very eminent authority of his day, is more than astonishing. In the case of the first suit the links of the chain mail have an interior diameter of about half an inch, and in section are triangular; they are not riveted, the ends simply meeting one another. The scaled appearance of the metal certainly points to the action of fire rather than to the oxidization of rust; so we may consider that that was the medium the forger made use of to lend to the mail its ancient appearance. The first suit on the list is the third suit referred to in the catalogue of the famous loan collection held at the Ironmongers' Hall in 1861, to which two other equally audacious shams of the same make