Beschreibung:

A COMPOSITE ETCHED NORTH ITALIAN CAP-A-PIE FIELD ARMOUR, CIRCA 1540 comprising close helmet with one-piece skull rising to a high roped medial comb and fitted at the nape with a later plume-holder, visor, upper bevor and bevor attached by common pivots, in each case fitted beneath its head with a rosette washer (replaced), the visor, with stepped centrally-divided vision-slit, fitted at its right with a lifting-peg (replaced), the markedly prow-shaped upper bevor pierced at its right with nine circular ventilation-holes in rosette-formation and fitted with a swivel-hook (replaced) to secure it to a pierced stud projecting from the bevor, and two rounded gorget-plates front and rear (the articulation-points of the lowest rear one patched), collar (restored) of three lames front and rear (restored), rounded and medially-ridged breastplate formed of a main plate fitted at each side with a rigidly-riveted side-plate and a movable gusset, at the right of the chest with three holes of which two serve to attach a hinged lance-rest (associated), and flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive a fauld of two lames (associated), and a pair of long, pendent tassets (the right restored) each of seven lames, one-piece backplate flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive a culet of two lames (restored), large asymmetrical pauldrons each formed of six lames, the third of the left flanged upwards to form a high haute-piece (the first and fourth to sixth of the left and the second of the right restored, and the third to fourth of the latter associated), fully articulated vambraces each formed of a one-piece turner, a tubular upper cannon, a winged couter of four lames, and a tapering tubular lower cannon, the couter open at its rear and decorated medially with a roped transverse rib, left mitten gauntlet (modern) formed of a short rounded tubular cuff fitted with a separate inner plate, five metacarpal-plates, a knuckle-plate formed with a roped transverse rib, five finger-plates and a hinged thumb-defence of five scales, a pair of short gutter-shaped cuisses (the right restored) each of one plate boxed medially and at the outside, and fitted with a winged poleyn of five lames (those of the right restored), and a pair of ankle-length greaves each fitted at its outside with a hinged side-plate and open at its inside rear (the main plate of the right patched at it lower edge, and its side-plate restored), the main edges of the armour formed with boldly-roped inward turns bordered, except on the collar, the backplate and the gauntlet by bands of finely etched linear arabesque ornament involving at either side of the comb of the helmet and the top of the haute-piece of the left pauldron a cross within a circular cartouche, that of the helmet, the right pauldron, the second and third lames of the left pauldron, the left tasset, the left cuisse and left greave original, and the remainder restored See note at front of catalogue for information concerning stands Provenance William Randolph Hearst, sold Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, 4th December 1952 JWHA, Inv. No. 3017 a-p Exhibited G. R. Marshall & Co, Canada, 1954 Worcester Pressed Steel Co., Worcester, Massachusetts, 1954 John Woodman Higgins's summer home, 1954, 1956, 1958 and 1959 Pressed Metal Institute, 1955 Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 18-19 November 1954 and 17-18 November 1959 Natwick Q M Corps, 20 November 1964-31 January 1966 Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, 12-14 November 1966 The helmet, the right pauldron, parts of the left pauldron, the left tasset, the left cuisse, the left greave and possibly the main plate of the breastplate form the remains of a finely decorated homogenous armour. The restoration of the armour was carried out in part by George Donaldson, armourer to William Randolph Hearst. The armour can be compared in style with the slightly later Italian armour of Cosimo de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-73), in the Hofj