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 being well within the reach of his purse, are not beyond the compass of his hopes. The pikeman breast- and backplates, and the pott helmet are still to be found, some of excellent make and style, as for instance the suits in the collections of Mr. W. H. Fenton and Mr. S. J. Whawell, where the element of design, apparently borrowed from a previous generation, is noticeable. Mr. Whawell's suit is of a beautiful russet colour (Fig. 1457). The cavalier's half armour or the accoutrement of the round-head soldier can still be met with. But all these things come almost within the category of "clothes" of the time, and are scarcely the achievements of the real armourer.

Italian workmanship, about 1630-40. Wallace Collection (Laking Catalogue, Nos. 643 and 644)

Finely decorated plate armour did, however, exist, apart from those examples we have described: take, for instance, that very rich and complete deep gorget in the Wallace Collection, Nos. 643 and 644 (Fig. 1458). Here can be seen workmanship in the nature of embossing, of chasing, and of damascening, as fine as any produced in the previous century. But there is lacking in it the one most important quality which gives to the mid-XVIth century armour enriched by such means a permanent position, and that is a broadness and greatness of conception. The gorget is composed of two plates,