Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/76

 by officers of certain regiments well into the XIXth century; indeed, they fall almost under the category of emblems of ranks.

Worn by Louis XIII. French workmanship, about 1630-40. G 249, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

Fig. 1460. Copper-gilt gorget

Dutch or English workmanship, about 1650. Ex collection: Bateman.

Now in a private collection

Though falling almost in the same class as the "clothes" armour of the cavalier and roundhead, there are certain national XVIIth century armaments of defence that have considerable interest even to real connoisseurs of armour, but more especially to those collectors whose country produced them. The wooden targets carried in the XVIIth and almost throughout the XVIIIth century by the sturdy warriors of Scotland are full of history, and by the very roughness of their make and their primitive and barbaric decoration, recall the fighting highlander; they almost tell the story of how the armourer produced them with his rough forge amid the brake and bracken of his native village. They are the delight of collectors, and, as we have said, in the country of their production, are much sought for as great rarities. To show the type, we represent two in the Windsor Castle Collection, Nos. 21 and 55 in the 1904 Catalogue (Figs. 1461 and 1462), both of the last quarter of the XVIIth century; one of them, indeed (Fig. 1461), bears the date 1692 engraved on its central boss. Both are circular and quite flat, fashioned of oak covered with dressed hide, the latter incised with a Celtic type of ornamentation. The interior of these targets or shields is covered