Thomas Del Mar - Arms & Armour

263
A FINE NORTH ITALIAN ETCHED AND GILT BREASTPLATE
FOR FIELD USE, CIRCA 1590-1600, PROBABLY MILANESE,
of late ‘peascod’ fashion, formed of a single heavy plate with
deep neck and arm-openings, etched in borders around its
neck and arm-openings and in seven diverging vertical
bands with bands of interlacing strapwork, partly blackened
and partly burnished on a stippled and gilt ground, enclosed
in each case by narrower bands of guilloche and engrailing,
and involving oval cartouches enclosing classical subjects
including representations of Victory and Mars, and fantastic
animals, all gilt on a stippled and blackened ground, the
main edges of the breastplate decorated with file-roped
inward turns, and the lance-rest and its retaining-screws gilt
(showing some patches of patination and light wear), fitted
with a buff leather shoulder-strap (replaced) to either side,
three further later buff leather straps for the attachment of a
pair of tassets to its outward-flanged lower edge on each
side, and a pair of threaded holes, reinforced at the rear, at
the right of the chest for the attachment by means of two
baluster-headed slotted screws of a lance-rest with a
bevelled sub-rectangular base-plate and a folding arm of
angular section, roped at its front edge and fitted on its
underside with a lever-operated spring-catch, the surface of
the breastplate
42cm; 16I in high
Inv. no. A095.
The etched decoration of the breastplate is of a pattern
employed by several Milanese armours of the late 16th century, including one who signed himself with the initials
IFP on a half armour in the Art Institute, Chicago, Acc. No.
1982.2194, and another who signed himself with a triple-
263
towered castle on a visor and bevor in the same collection,
Acc. No. 1982.2493 (see L. Tarassuk 1986, Cat. Nos 6 & 9,
pp. 15-16, figs 10 & 14). The pattern is particularly
associated, however, with Pompeo della Chiesa (recorded
1571-93) who had his workshop in the Castello Sforzesco,
Milan (see A. V. B. Norman 1986, p. 31). It occurs, for
example, on a signed half-armour at Wilton House,
Wiltshire, made by him for Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of
Pembroke (F. H. Cripps-Day 1925, p. 268, fig. 205). Further
signed works of Pompeo, such as a cap-a-pié armour in the
Museo Stibbert, Florence, Inv. No. 3476, a half-armour in
the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cat. No. 32, and a further
half-armour in the armoury of the Knights of St John,
Malta, Cat No. 91, the close helmet of which is in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Acc. No. 14.25.652,
show the pattern employed in conjunction with intervening
panels of trophies (See L. G. Boccia 1975, Cat. No. 23, pl.
24; C. Otto von Kienbusch 1963, pp. 46-7, pl. XXXIII; and S.
C. Spiteri 2003, pp. 274-5, figs A1-5). The pattern occurs on
its own on a cuirassier armour in the Museo di
Capodimonte, Naples, Inv. No. 35712 & 4183 (see L. G.
Boccia & E. T. Coelho 1967, fig. 404), on a half-armour
bearing the triple-towered castle mark, formerly in the
collection of the Earl of Harrington (Sotheby’s, London, 4
May 1964, lot 174), the close helmet of which (Sotheby’s,
London, 12 October 1976, lot 300) is now reunited with it, a
half armour bearing a double-towered castle mark, in the
Museo Civico L. Marzoli, Brescia, Inv. No. 999 (see F. Rossi
& N. di Carpegna 1969, Cat. No. 18, pp. 20-1), and several
detached elements in the Wallace Collection, London, Cat.
Nos A58 & 59 (see J. G. Mann 1962, pp. 29-32). It is
possible that the breastplate under discussion derives from
the same garniture as one or more of these pieces.
£10000-15000
119