**PROPERTY SOLD BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
A COMPOSITE NORTH ITALIAN ETCHED CORSLET , LATE 16TH CENTURY
well composed and decorated, comprising morion with rounded one-piece skull rising to a high roped medial comb (patched at four points), and 'swept' integral brim rising to an acute point front and rear, the latter struck with the initials MB, probably of an erstwhile owner (the rear point restored and the front one patched at its left edge); collar of two lames front and rear (the top one in each case restored, the lower front one with chipped lower edge and the associated lower rear one with plugged holes at its upper edge and a patched extension at its left end); breastplate formed of a main plate of deep, peascod, fashion fitted at its arm-openings with fixed gussets (the upper end of the left missing and that of the right restored) and flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive an associated fauld of one lame (the centre of its upper edge cracked) carrying on three restored straps and buckles at each side a trapezoidal tasset, the left of ten lames and the right of eleven lames; one-piece backplate (restored) with broad shallow neck-opening and flanged lower edge; two large symmetrical pauldrons (not a pair) each formed of seven lames of which the lowest four extend inwards only to the armpit (the upper two lames of the right pauldron cracked, the second of them patched); and two fully articulated tubular vambraces (not a pair), each fitted at its upper end with a turner, that of the left of two lames (the upper one restored) and the right of one lame, and at its elbow with a winged bracelet couter of three lames; the main edges of the armour formed with inwards turns, decorated, except in the case of those of the right vambrace with roping, and accompanied at points by roped ribs in some cases terminating in volutes; the morion decorated overall within vertical bands on the crown and strapwork-interlace on the comb with linear etching showing, on a pearled ground, female figures and birds among trophies of arms, and the remainder, except the backplate, finely decorated with bands and borders of relief-etching on a stippled and blackened ground involving at the top of the breastplate the figure of St John the Baptist holding a banner with the abbreviated inscription AD for Agnus Dei, elsewhere allegorical figures, including lions, birds and fabulous beasts, and in the volutes of the breastplate, pauldrons and tassets, classical busts (the etching of both front lames and the upper rear lame of the gorget, the fauld, the uppermost lame of the left turner, and of the right vambrace later), See note at front of catalogue for information concerning standsProvenance
Prince Peter Soltykoff, Paris, sold 1860
William H. Riggs, Paris
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Acc. No. 14.25.681For a discussion of this type of armour see Boccia and Godoy 1992, pp. 87-110, where the decoration is described as "armor decorated with smooth bands alternating with bands filled with small trophies in the Lombard style" as opposed to the more common, and inaccurate, appellation 'Pisan'.