Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/70

 suit presented to Louis XIV which bears the maker's name: ''Franciscus Garbagn[~au]s, Brixiae fecit'', 1668, of which we shall next speak. The proof mark on this suit is upon the left of the breastplate, at the point where the lower edge of the pauldrons ends. It has been made the centre of a double-petalled rose, showing plainly that the bullet mark was there before the engraver began his work. A similar mark at the back is made the centre of a flower.

The suit upon which these interesting proof marks can be seen will be the last complete harness we shall mention in this work. It is G 125 in the Musée d'Artillerie of Paris (Fig. 1455), previously in the ''Musée des Souverains''. It was presented by the Republic of Venice in 1669 to Louis XIV after his conquest of Flanders.

Monsieur Barbet de Jouy, in his work on the Musée des Souverains, considered that the maker of the suit was Franz Garbagnaner, a German, who worked at Brescia in 1688.

In this suit we see a deep-sea diver outline to the fullest disadvantage, all the more so as the harness is complete with gouty jambs and sollerets. We condemn it because of its ungainly form, which for sheer ugliness surpasses that of any other harness with which we are acquainted. But it is well and carefully made. The breastplate is flat, and somewhat longer than that of the Louis XIII suit. The arm defences are large in circumference, but very fully protective. From the waist to the knee, laminated plates are the defence, the knee-cops being large; while the jambs, as we have remarked, are the most unshapely we have ever seen. The head-piece is a form of pott helmet, with a deep wide umbril, cheek-pieces, and a spreading plate at the back. The whole surface of the suit is most elaborately decorated with work executed with a graving tool, which embraces the designs of tulip-like and other foliage and birds, the whole being unmistakably of late German fashion. In the centre of the breastplate is a large fleur-de-lis, the field of which is utilized for the representations of three views of the taking of the town of Lille. The engraving is executed with a clear and decisive touch, if without originality. The groundwork is brightened.

We have noted that, during the second half of the XVIIth century, nearly all the designs utilized in the decoration of armour, whether placed in bands or covering the entire surface, were executed with a graving tool, and not through the medium of aqua fortis etching as in the XVIth century. We find, however, some admirable work after the older method was executed in the first quarter of the XVIIth century. That the designs utilized were