**A COMPOSITE EUROPEAN CAP-A-PIE FIELD ARMOUR IN THE SO-CALLED 'GOTHIC' FASHION, CIRCA 1490-1510 comprising modern sallet with rounded skull, short separate 'tail'-plate, pivoted visor with a pair of flanged vision-slits, secured to the skull at the right by a spring-catch, Spanish bevor formed of a main plate shaped to the chin and flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive a V-shaped gorget-plate (the latter associated and both elements showing patched repairs), the main plate fitted with a modern lining and mail-covered neck-strap, German breastplate formed of a rounded main plate with angular outward turns at it neck and arm-openings, and an associated plackart rising to a decoratively-shaped cusp at its centre, overlapping the lower edge of the main plate to which it is attached by a single screw and flanged outwards its lower edge to receive an associated fauld of four lames (the first and last restored), and supporting on a pair of straps and buckles at each side a medially-ridged Flemish or Spanish tasset of five lames (the lowest four of the right and the second to fourth of the left restored ), a Spanish or Flemish backplate formed of a main plate and a pair of side-plates (each with patched repairs) rigidly riveted to one another and fitted at their lower edge with an associated waist-lame flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive an associated and much restored culet of four lames, the lowest of which descends to a slight central cusp, pair of German spaudlers each of seven lames (the lowest two in each case associated), the top one of the right struck with the mark of the Innsbruck armourer Hans Maystetter, both struck with a pair of dots, and the lowest connected by a turner to a fully articulated Italian vambrace of tubular form with a couter of three lames, the central one formed with a medially-puckered oval side-wing, pair of modern radially fluted besagues, pair of German gauntlets (the right entirely restored except for the main plate of its thumb-defence, and the left patched at several points) each formed of a short straight-ended cuff open at the inside of the wrist, five metacarpal-plates, a shaped knuckle-plate, a finger-plate, modern finger-defences of mail and a hinged thumb-defence (the left restored), modern left cuisse formed of a gutter-shaped main plate fitted within its concave upper edge with two extension-lames, at its outer edge with a hinged side-plate and at its lower edge with a poleyn of five lames, the third of which is formed with a pronounced medial ridge and a medially-puckered oval side-wing (right cuisse and poleyn missing), pair of modern tubular greaves extending downwards over the ankles, and pair of modern sabatons, each formed of a front and rear section connected by a hinge at the outside and fastened by a swivel-hook and stud beneath the cut-outs for the ankles, and the front section of nine lames projecting forward to a long pointed toe-cap (the whole lightly pitted overall) See note at front of catalogue for information concerning stands Provenance The Royal Armoury, Lisbon Dr Bashford Dean, Riverdale, New York No. 46, 5 September 1929 Clarence H. Mackay, Long Island, New York Jaques Seligmann & Co., New York, 9 November 1940 JWHA Inv. No. 2606 Literature Stephen V. Grancsay, Catalogue of Armor: The John Woodman Higgins Armory, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1961, p. 35, illustrated Exhibited Monmouth Museum, New Jersey, 27 February - 6 May 1978 Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, April 1940 - February 1941. Mrs. Mary Lou Wilding-White, 10 February 1966 - May 1972. Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas, 1982-3, The mark on the right spaudler is that of the Innsbruck armourer Hans Maystetter, active 1510-33 (Thomas and Gamber 1954, pp. 72-3). The bevor and backplate have a character typical of pieces deriving from the armoury of the Knights of St John at Rhodes which fell to the forces of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522 (Karcheski & Richardson 2000, pp. 32