Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/143

 size—in which the artificial rusting is clearly apparent (Fig. 1531). The author has seen many modern harnesses of this particular form—three of which are in America and some half-dozen in private collections in Germany.

False suits which imitate the armourers' fashions of the third quarter of the XVth century are very numerous, some being remarkably deceptive. The example of which we give an illustration (Fig. 1532) is of modern Munich make, excellent in general appearance and constructed with considerable pains. This particular harness is very similar to that attributed to Sigismund of Tyrol in the Ambras Collection (see Vol. i, Fig. 244, page 211), and like that suit has a border of applied brass tracery. It is rather difficult to point to any actual defect in its general form; but we can distinguish a certain over-modelling of the fronts of the jambs, and we may also suggest that its pointed sollerets are purely imaginative in form. Again, if we examine the surface of the metal, we shall find that it is leaden and lustreless, of a colour that no amount of cleaning would bring to that splendid black glossy appearance of true XVth century plate.

Third quarter of the XVth century

Many suits of this particular make are to be seen in America, in Germany, and in certain French collections: for the most part accepted as genuine, they are, however, one and all forgeries, and in the author's opinion all made by the same hand, or at least supplied by the same factory. They]