**A COMPOSITE GERMAN CUIRASSIER'S ARMOUR, CIRCA 1620 comprising shot-proof close helmet of 'Todenkopf' form with rounded two-piece skull joined medially by rivets, its lower edge formed with a short integral rear gorget-plate, and peak, upper bevor and lower bevor attached to the former at either side by common pivots with low domed heads, the peak arched over the eyes and descending between them as a V-shaped projection, the near-vertical, medially-ridged upper bevor with slightly convex profile cut at its upper edge with a pair of U-shaped apertures for vision, a horizontal ventilation-slot over the mouth, and fitted to the right of the latter with a slender lifting-peg (restored), and the lower bevor formed with an integral front gorget-plate (its right end patched), 'Almain' collar formed of a single lame front and rear, fitted at each side with an integral spaudler (associated) of seven lames, one-piece breastplate of late 'peascod' fashion flanged outwards at its lower edge and fitted there with two pairs of modern hinges for the attachment of a pair of knee-length tassets each formed of eleven lames of which the last and longest is cut away slightly at the inside of the knee and fitted at its lower edge with a winged poleyn of three lames, one-piece backplate flanged outwards at its lower edge and fitted within it with a pair of modern projecting tabs, each bearing a pierced stud for the attachment of a deep flaring culet of four lames, the first traversely boxed and the last formed in two halves joined medially by rivets and deepening to its outer ends, a pair of modern besagues, each of circular form, rising at its centre to a conical boss, a pair of later sleeves of butted mail, probably Near or Middle-Eastern, and two long gauntlets, not a pair, each formed of a long, slightly flared tubular cuff closed at the inside by a separate plate and extending over the point of the elbow, five metacarpal-plates, a knuckle-plate decorated with a file-roped transverse rib, and a lining-glove of brocaded linen, that of the right retaining its distal two thumb-scales, the main edges of the armour formed with plain inward turns accompanied in part by recessed borders, and the subsidiary edges in most cases bevelled and polished bright to contrast with the overall black finish of the armour (refreshed with paint) Provenance Solothurn Arsenal, Switzerland (cuirass only) Dr Bashford Dean, Riverdale, New York, sold by American Art Association, New York, 23-4 November 1928, lot 147 JWHA Inv. No. 609 Literature Stephen V. Grancsay, Catalogue of Armor: The John Woodman Higgins Armory, Worcester 1961, p. 101, illustrated