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German, Nuremberg workmanship, about 1570. Etched in 1610 by Hans Keiser, probably of Vienna. National Germanic Museum, Nuremberg

not best adapted to their purpose is hardly the fault of the armourer or the enricher, but is to be ascribed to the taste of the day. Of early XVIIth century aqua fortis etching, we are acquainted with no more ornate example than that to be seen on a suit in the National Germanic Museum of Nuremberg (Fig. 1456). We regard the suit as a Nuremberg harness of the third quarter of the XVIth century, and consider that the ornate etching was added in the first quarter of the XVIIth century; for at the extreme base of the breastplate is the inscription:. The name and date only are worked with a graving tool. The surfaces of the plates are wholly etched with the most elaborate floral designs, introducing terminal winged harpies, the double-headed Austrian eagle, and upon the breastplate emblematical figures inscribed:, and the date 1609. The late Herr Wendelin Boeheim mentions a late XVIIth century gunsmith named