A COMPOSITE EUROPEAN CUIRASSIER'S ARMOUR, EARLY 17TH CENTURY comprising German close helmet of '

A COMPOSITE EUROPEAN CUIRASSIER'S ARMOUR, EARLY 17TH CENTURY comprising German close helmet of 'Todenkopf' fashion with rounded two-piece skull joined along the crest of a high medial comb and fitted at the nape with a plume-holder now occupied by modern black and white ostrich feathers, peak and bevor attached by common pivots, the peak fitted within its brow with a U-shaped face-defence pierced with inverted L-shaped openings for the eyes and a small rectangular opening for the mouth, the face-defence and bevor each secured at the right side by a swivel-hook, and a single gorget-plate front and rear, collar of three lames front and rear, the lower front one marked W over an indistinct four-digit number, heavy one-piece breastplate of late 'peascod' fashion, fitted at each side of the chest with a stud for the attachment of a shoulder-strap and at each side of its flanged lower edge with a hinged bolt and wing-nut (both replaced, the left bolt missing) for the attachment of long tassets each of eleven lames (the first associated), the lowest six detachable and terminating in a winged poleyn of four lames, heavy one-piece backplate en suite with the breastplate and fitted with scaled shoulder-straps, buckles for the attachment of pauldrons and a waist-belt (all except left shoulder-scales replaced), its flanged lower edge (showing small loss at right end) fitted at either side with a pierced stud to receive a culet of two lames secured by a pair of swivel-hooks, and large symmetrical pauldons each of seven lames overlapping outwards from the third and largest which is decorated at the front with nine rivets in rosette formation, and connected by a turner to a late 16th century Italian vambrace consisting of a tubular upper and lower cannon and bracelet couter of three lames, the central one fitted with a separate wing of small size, the main edges of the armour turned inwards, those of the pauldrons and vambrace decorated with roped inward turns, accompanied in the case of the vambraces by roped ribs, and those of the remainder left plain and variously accompanied on the helmet and cuirass by recessed or incised borders, the breastpate and backplate each decorated with radiating trios of incised lines, the surface of the armour painted black overall (the collar, pauldrons and couters replaced), on a wooden stand painted black