Beschreibung:

comprising morion in the ?Spanish? fashion, with one-piece almond-shaped crown rising at its apex to a vestigial backward-directed 'stalk' (pierced with a small later hole at its rear), and slightly down-turned narrow integral brim, its edge formed with a file-roped inward turn accompanied by a narrow groove with later rivets, the base of the crown encircled by fourteen later lining-rivets with brass rosette-washers; collar of a single deep plate front and rear; breastplate formed of a main plate of deep 'peascod' fashion, flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive a pair of associated pendent tassets each of four lames (altered to match and partly disarticulated); well-matched backplate flanged outwards at its base; two large symmetrical pauldrons (not a pair), each formed of seven lames of which the lowest four extend inwards only to the armpit (both partly disarticulated), two large symmetrical pauldrons (not a pair), each formed of seven lames of which the lowest four extend inwards only to the armpit (the uppermost two of each associated), a pair of fully articulated tubular vambraces, each fitted at its upper end with a turner of one lame, and at its elbow with a winged bracelet couter of three lames; and a pair of gauntlets each formed of a flared tubular pointed cuff (the right with small rust perforations), four metacarpal-plates (the third of the left cracked and patched at its inner end), a shaped knuckle-plate, and hinged thumb-plate (finger and thumb-scales missing); the main edges of the armour formed almost throughout with file-roped inward turns, the vambraces and gauntlets with file-roped secondary borders and its surfaces decorated with etching on a stippled and blackened ground, that of the morion consisting of eight radiating bands of trophies of arms framed by cabling within plain lines, and the brim with stylised acanthus foliage (areas of wear), and that of the remainder consisting of bands and borders of trophies of arms generally enclosed by narrow bands of cabling and enclosing in the interspaces and volutes on the fronts and rears of the pauldrons, busts and full-length figures of classical warriors, and involving at the neck-opening of the breastplate the device of a two-towered castle; on a wooden stand with base Provenance Joe Kindig Jr. (1898-1971), thence by descent The device of a castle etched at the neck-opening of the breastplate represents the signature of one of the most important Milanese armourers of the late 16th century, know to scholars today as the 'Master of the Castle'. It is possible that he, like his contemporary, Pompeo della Chiesa was privileged to work in the Castello Sforzesco, residence of the Dukes of Milan. Other extant works bearing his signature include the fine garniture made for Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Prince Bishop of Salzburg, probably after 1587, and now divided between the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, the Wallace Collection, London, and the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, as well as various armours preserved in the Museo Civico L. Marzoli, Brescia, the Real Armeria, Turin, the Real Armeria, Madrid, the Mus?e de l'Arm?e, Paris, and the Wallace Collection, London. See Beard 1924, pp. 11-12; Norman 1986, pp. 29, 32-3 & 36-7; and LaRocca 2000, pp. 181-97. A composite North Italian etched corselet with the same mark, formerly in the John Woodman Higgins Armoury Collection, Worcester Massachusetts, was sold in this room 7th May 2014, . Part proceeds to benefit the Acquisition Fund of the Arms and Armor department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.