**A COMPOSITE NORTH GERMAN LIGHT INFANTRY ARMOUR IN THE 'BLACK-AND-WHITE' FASHION, CIRCA 1570-1610 comprising comb morion with rounded crown formed in two halves joined along a high medial comb, and 'swept' integral brim rising to an acute point front and rear (the front one bent), the base of the crown encircled by fourteen (originally sixteen) lining-rivets with rosette-washers of brass and fitted at the nape with a slender tapering plume-holder, 'Almain' collar formed of three lames front and rear (partly disarticulated, the left of the lowest front one patched) and fitted at each side with an integral spaudler of six lames, breastplate formed of a medially-ridged main plate projecting forward over the belly and fitted at its arm-openings with moveable gussets and at its lower edge with a fauld of two lames (associated) supporting on straps two long tassets of each of six lames (the right partly disarticulated) terminating just above the knees, and one-piece backplate boxed at either side and flanged outwards at its lower end to receive a culet of one lame, the main edges of the armour formed with inward turns decorated, other than on the helmet, with roping, the breastplate decorated with three diverging bands enclosed in each case by a pair of narrower bands, the crown of the morion decorated at each side with a large fleur-de-lis enclosed within a circle surrounded by stylised acanthus foliage repeated in the borders of each of the remaining elements of the armour, and in all cases embossed and burnished bright against a blackened ground (refreshed) See note at front of catalogue for information concerning stands Provenance J. Glueckselig & Sohn, Vienna, 1st December 1936 JWHA Inv. No. 2384.a-f Exhibited Fort Devens Service Club, Ayer, Massachusetts, 8 August-30 October 1941 The decoration of the armour is characteristically North German in style. Pieces of the same fashion can be seen in the former arsenals of Emden, Lübeck and Munster (K. Ullmann 1961, figs 7, 14 & 24; K. Ullmann 1963, figs 8, 15 & 24-25; and K. Ullmann 1968, pp. 18-19)