Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/72



Made for Charles II when Prince. English workmanship, about 1640-50. Tower of London (Class II, No. 92)

Georg Keiser, of Vienna, and speaks of his father as Gaspar; it is possible that he was the same decorator as. Occasionally, on suits of early XVIIth century date, etching is to be seen in absolute imitation of the work of such men as Peter von Speyer. But such etching is easily recognized, being, as a rule, thinly bitten in; while the designs are drawn with that uncertainty of touch that differentiates the work of the copyist from that of the originator. It is interesting to compare the aqua fortis etching, as seen on the suit just illustrated, with the tool engraving of comparatively few years' later date. As, for instance, in an armour on which the latter kind of work is clearly marked in the small breastplate, backplate, gorget, and heavy triple-barred helmet, made for Charles II when prince, which, judging from its size, must have been about 1640-50 (Fig. 1457). On the skull-piece are panels crudely and stiffly engraved with trophies of arms, work executed with a graving tool and with punches of various sizes. Other portions of the suit are similarly engraved, but owing to slight embossing from the back, a relief is given to some of the detail, lending to it a very rich appearance, which is greatly aided by the thick and remarkably well preserved silver-plating with which the whole surface of this little suit is coated. This was once gilt; for in the inventories of the Tower this small harness is easily distinguished, and it is there so described. In the 1660 inventory of the Tower, under the heading of "sundry rich armours and parcells of Armor and now remaineing in severall Trunckes, within the office of the armory" is the entry relating to