Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/407

 NOTICES OF FOREIGN SEPULCHRAL BRASSES. 29 i ailettes, with which hkewise such heart-shaped shiekl was to be seen formerly in the Dominicans church at Ghent, on the sepulchral portraiture of Busere de Bassevelde, who died in 1313.^ It will be found in one of the most instructive volumes I have seen, in relation to the curious mixed armour of this period (Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 16, G. VI.), being there also found ^vith ailettes. It may, however, reasonably be conjectured that this form is a con- ventional mode of representing the convexity of the shield, which, it must be remembered, was rarely flat, and often much bent for the wearer's convenience, as is well shown by Hefner, (XlVth Cent., PI. 8). The shield worn by Wenemaer is charged with his armorial bearing (billety) ; the metal is finely cross-hatched, to receive the colours, of which no trace now remains. Above, between the figures, a scutcheon is affixed, probably of the same age as the inscription beneath, charged with the same billety coat of Wenemaer, impaling the arms of his wife, a female bust with the hair dishevelled, a jewel appended to the neck. The effigy of Margriete Wene- maer, who survived her husband twenty-seven years, bears considerable resemblance in its design to sepulchral por- traitures of the fourteenth century in England. Her head- dress consists of the kerchief and the barbe, the fashion appropriate to her state of widowhood ; the loose upper robe with short sleeves, whilst the under robe had tight sleeves closed by numerous little buttons to the wrist. The dress sliown on the sepulchral brasses of Margaret de Camoys (1310),^ and Joan Cobham (1320), is similar, with the exception that in those instances the hair and frontlet are shown, and the long skirt of the robe is not gathered up under the arm, — a variety of design which may be noticed in the figures of the lady of Sir John de Creke {c. 1325), Margaret Braunche (1364), at Lynn, and other English memorials. albert way. 7 De Vigne, Vade-mecum, torn. ii., pi. 39. * Boutell's Monumental Brasses, p. 8L