SUV.
U5 ;
NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
BY BASHFORD DEAN CURATOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARMS AND ARMOR
NEW YORK
M C M X V I I. / Z~ PREFACE
the field of arms and armor The Metropohtan Museum IiN of Art has hitherto pubhshed four handbooks or cata-
logues, viz. : Catalogue of the Loan Collection of Japan- ese Armor (Handbook No. 14), 1903, 71 pp., 14 figs. (Out of Print); Catalogue of European Arms and Armor (Hand- book No. 15), 1905, 215 pp., loi figs. (Out of Print);
Catalogue of a Loan Collection of Arms and Armor, 19,1 i,
85 pp., pis. i-xlvii; Handbook of the Collection of Arms and Armor, including the William H. Riggs Donation.
1915. 161 pp., pis. i-lxv [Edition 1, January, Edition II, March].
Together with these appeared from time to time in the Museum Bulletin a series of notes upon various branches of the subject, mainly relating to accessions, but sometimes touching a wider field. Between 1905 and the present year,
19 16, about fifty contributions are recorded, nearly all from the pen of the curator, some brief, some extended. As they were widely scattered, it now seems well to bring them to- gether, with certain changes and additions in both text and figures, together with a hitherto unpublished article, for the use of those who are interested in armor and arms and in the activities of the Museum in this field. Edward Robinson, Director. April, 1916.
ioib
1 7
CONTENTS
PAGE PAGE
I. Casques of Tibetan High XIV. The Rearranged Armor Gal-
Priests 3 lery 29
I : ( 1 906) 97-98 IV (1909): 28-29 11. A Japanese Sword-Guard XV. Recent Accessions of Arms
Picturing a . . Hollander. 4 and Armor 31
I (1906): 1 7- 1 18 1 IV (1909): 54 III. A Modern Japanese Helmet 7 XVI. A Bronze Corselet of the I I (1907): 10 Hallstatt Period 32 IV. Objects from the William I V ( : 89-90 1 909) Cruger Pell Collection of XVII. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant. ... 34 Arms 8 6- I V ( 909) : 1 1 1 H (1907): 48 1 1 XVlll. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, V. Note on Japanese Helmets. 9 II (1907): 48 First Patron of the Mu- VI. Accessions of Primitive Jap- seum Collection of Arms and Armor 38 anese Arms and Armor. . 1 IV (1909): 155 1 1 ( : 1 1 907) 07 VII. Gift of a Turko-Austrian XIX. Department of Arms and Cannon to the Collection Armor—The Upkeep of of Arms and Armor 12 the Collection 40 II (1907): 107-108 IV (1909): 190 VIII. A Gift of Japanese Sword- XX. Note on the "Casque of Guards from Japan 13 Jeanne d'Arc" . 41 II (1907): 138-139 V (19 10): 16-17 IX. The Hall of Japanese Armor 15 XXI. A Seventeenth- C e n t u r\' II (1907): 203-204 Wheellock Pistol 43 X. A Specimen of Early Japa- V (1910): 148-149 nese Armor 21 XXI 1. Recent Accessions of Arms HI (1908): 13-14 and Armor XI. An Acquisition of Early 45 V (1950): 257-258 Bronze Armor 23 Exhibition of Arms HI (1908): 38-39 XXI II. Loan XII. A Seventeenth-Century Ar- and Armor, 191 1 47 mor for Horse and Man. 26 V (1910): 259; VI (191 1): HI (1908): 56-57 2-M 50-51 XIII. A Gift of Embroidered XXIV. Accessions in .\rms and Yoko-Zuna (Champion Armor: Swords and a \'o- Wrestler's Aprons) 28 netian Salade 50 III (1908): 93 \'I (i()i i): 2^7-2 ^S
Vll 1
CONTENTS
PAGE P.\GE
XX\'. An Assxrian Sword. ... 52 XXXVl I. Mr. Riggs as a Collector \'II (1912): 3-4; 62; of .Armor 86
IX (1914) : 66-74 XX\'I. .Armor Worn in .America 55 XXX\1I1. Not a Banner but a B\-
VII (1912): 26-28 zantine .Altar Carpet . . 98
XX\1I. The Gauntlets of the IX ( 1914) : 97-98 Earl of Sussex (1583) 58 XXXIX. .An Italian Bow and \TI (1912): 214-215 Quiver of the Renais- XXX'III. -A Loan Collection of sance 100 Japanese Sword- IX (1914): 100-10 Guards 60 XL. .A Gift of Japanese \T1 (1912): 227 Sword-Guards 102 XXIX. .A Collection of .Armor- IX (19 14) 1140- 142 ers' Implements 62 XLl. The Opening of the Wil-
\'I I (1912): 231 liam H. Riggs Collec- XXX. The .Armor of Sir James tion of .Armor 105 Scudamore 63 X (1915): 2; 32-33 \III (1913): 118-123 XLl I. .An .Armorer's Workshop 109 XXXI. .A Sword-Guard b\' the X (1915): 12S-127 Japanese Artist Ka- XLl 11. Diane's Stirrup 112 nei\ e Sho-Dai 69 X (191 5): 129
\TII (19 3): 1 59-162 1 XL1\'. An Explanatorx' Label for XXXll. .A Thirteenth-Centur\- Helmets 113 Marble Relief from X (1915): 173-177 Poblet 73 XLV. Historical Fan, War-Hat. \11I (1913): 172-173 and Gun from Japan.. 119 XXXI II. .A Raven in Embossed X (191 5): 256-260 Steel b\' the Japanese XL\'l. .Armor of Dom Pedro II, .Armorer .\l\ochin King of Portugal Munesuke 76 123 XI (1916): 19-21 \III (1913): 180-181 \'. XLN'll. .A Late Se\enteenth-Cen- XXX I Two Memorial Effigies of the Late X\'I Cen- tur\- Italian Sabre . . 126 tur\ 79 XI (1916): 42-43 \'1 The .Armor of Sir James 1 1 (1913): 218-220 XLVIII. XX.W. Loan Collection of Jap- Scudamore. 128 anese Sword-Guards. 82 XI (1916): 69-71 Vill (1913): 272-273 XLIX. -Mr. Morgan's Milanese XXX\1. The William H. Riggs Casque 131 Collection of .Arms XI (1916): 86-89 and Armor 85 L. Pole-Arms: their Kinds IX (1Q14): 66 and their Development 135
viu NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
CASQUES OF TIBETAN HIGH PRIESTS
recent expedition of the Bri- cently been added to the Museum collec- THEtish to Lhasa has borne at least tions. They were obtained by the curator one kind of fruit, for it has ex- of arms and armor during a recent visit tracted from forbidden Tibetan to northern India, and are now presented monasteries art objects of no common in- by him to the Museum. The\' are made terest. Indeed, according to a well-known of copper, hammered out of single pieces, collector, more Tibetan objects have been then incrusted with medallions; the latter, secured during the single year past (1904) with brow bands and ear guards, were than during thirty years preceding. And finally overlaid with gold. Their form is this may well be the case when we consider curiously archaic, and it is from this stand- that the returning members (using the point that they are of interest; for they term "members" in its widest sense) of suggest exotic influence, early Indian and the Younghusband expedition brought possibly even Greek. Thus, the oldest of back with them the portable treasures of these priestly helmets, fig. i, dating proba- several of the oldest and most conservative bly from the sixteenth centurx', has the Lamaseries. Such objects, accordingly, broad crown and hood-like features shown are finding their way into the hands of the in certain Graeco-Bactrian monuments; art dealers of Darjeeling, Calcutta, and while the two remaining casques, with their Delhi, and thence through their correspon- tall crowns and narrow brow bands, suggest dents into foreign collections. In recent head-gear which appears in the (Jain) rock months not a few excellent mandara (scrolls sculptures of southern India. Their decor- picturing the Tibetan pantheon) have been ation, on the other hand, is clearl\' Mon- exported to Paris and Berlin; many curious golian. The casque shown in fig. 3 dates gilded bronzes, temple ornaments garnished from the late seventeenth or earl\' eigh- with turquoise, and many relics and reli- teenth centur\-, and is of the better class quaries. Among the last may be men- of workmanship; it is richl\' laden with tioned such an object as the extraordinary Buddhistic figures, and here and there in- cup formed of a saintly skull, recently crusted with crxstal and turquoise. Unfor- presented to the Metropolitan Museum by tunately this specimen lacks the ear guards. Mr. Laffan; such also are aprons made up These, however, are present in the third of elaborately carved bones, or drums casque, fig. 2, which in all other regards is formed of crania, or temple horns of which the least interesting. It is poor in work- the resonant shafts are the arm-bones of manship, and is modern, dating from about righteous men! 1800. Among the temple treasures have occas- A helmet borne b\ a high priest suggests ionally been found antique helmets, pro- evidentl\' an epoch in Tibetan histor\' when fusely decorated with Buddhistic symbols; the priest was a militar>' no less than a and three of these, figs. 1 to 3, have re- ghostly ruler. A JAPANESE SWORD-GUARD PICTURING A HOLLANDER
is clearlx' recognized that the influ- shop one ma\ run across an earl\' European ITence of Europe upon Japan during the button, brooch, painting, primitive watch, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries or bit of brocade. .Among other European was b\' no means unimportant. And objects, decorated leather found its way even throughout the period when the re- into japan at an earl\' period, and was strictions upon the Dutch "factorx" at there highl\- prized. It was used not for Deshima allowed onl\- a boat a \ear to dis- screens— it was over costly for that —but as a veneer fortobacco pouches, small cabinets,
and parts of armor. .-\s I write, a pair of "sendan " (armpit pieces of a suit of armor) lie before me incased in leather of the coarse-patterned foliate t\pe which was used as wall hangings in Dutch houses of
the seventeenth centur\ . .And we have a
suspicion that in this, as in similar cases, it was the old-fashioned objects, rejected b>' the markets of Europe, which found their wa\' into the trading stocks of the India Companw This was certainly true in the case of European armor; for we have good
evidence not onl\- that it was imported into Japan, but that record prices were paid for it —and this after the European demand had subsided in consequence of improve-
ments in fire-arms. Thus it is known that the helmets and corselets of daim\os were not infrequentlx of European origin, al-
JAPANESE SWORD-GUARD though, it appears, alwa\s remodeled after PICTLRING A HOLLANDER, PROBABL'4 the Japanese fashion. One ma\' mention EARL'i EIGHTEENTH CENTURY in this connection the remarkable head- piece of the great Tokugawa in the temple charge its cargo in Japan, there continued museum at Nikko, the Dutch cabasset of a steadx' infiltration of European ideas and about 1620, now in the Imperial Museum methods, no less than of trading stuffs. of Tokyo, parts of the suit of a daim\o of
In this connection it ma\' be said thai .Arima in the possession of Mr. Louis B.
the collector who visits Japan is constantlx McCagg of this city, and several head- coming in touch with earl\- objects of pieces collected by the writer. To these European workmanship, or with earl\' we may now (19 16) add the admirable copies of them. One may see, for example, Dutch morion exhibited in the Brooklyn a bit of European flannel carefully worked Museum. into the case of some object precious in tea Entire suits of European armor were ceremonies; one ma\' be shown among the undoubtedl>' imported. One, which was treasures of a Japanese collector's go-down richly decorated, was secured not long ago
an eighteenth-centur\- baize table-cloth, b\' a collector in Tok\o. who sent it back to
stamped unpleasantl\ in bright colors; in a Europe, and it was later sold (1891) among FIG. I
FIG. 2 FIG. 3
CASQUES OF HIGH PRIFSTS, IIBFTAN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
the objects of the Chateau Acquabella, happened to examine a collection of guards
Florence. I have myself found in shops at Noetsu, in the province of Echigo. Here in various parts of Japan fragments of he discovered a guard decorated with a etched and gilded German armor, which figure which the Japanese collector pro- had been broken up to form ornaments for nounced a "Corean," but which was an
tobacco boxes I obvious Hollander. And it even tells us Swords appear to have been rarel\' what manner of man was this early trader imported: their shape made them unsuited at Nagasaki: he wore a curl\- wig, a three- for Japanese use, nor was their material cornered hat surmounted b\' a tuft of desirable—the native blades ne\er ha\"ing feathers, a broad-bottomed coat with silver been surpassed. buttons, a wide cufl^, and ruffles at his It is a curious, and not altogether a throat and wrists. The tobacco pipe he flattering fact —from the western stand- carried is of Hollandish length, although point—that European figures or faces its decoration is Japanese, and he led a rarel\- find their way into sixteenth, seven- spaniel, of the small, spotted kind, which teenth, or eighteenth-centurx' Japanese art. was just becoming known in Europe as a
Exceptional is the figure, probablx' of a "King Charles." The guard dates ap- Portuguese, pictured b\' Huish, in the Sir parentlx' from the earl\' eighteenth century, Trevor Lawrence Collection; and rare, also, and from its decoration we ma\' query are eighteenth-centur\' prints which appear whether its material is the "namban tetsu," to ha\e been based upon European models. foreign iron, which at that time had be- Even among the thousands of richl\' decor- come famous in Japan for the making of ated sword-guards of this period one seeks armor. in vain for figures of Europeans. Such, at This tsuba was subsequently presented least, was the writer's experience, until he to the Metropolitan Museum.
DUTCH MORION, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY FROM JAPAN Ill
A MODERN JAPANESE HELMET
DATED 1850
AMONG the objects secured by the there appears an ornamentation of plum /\ Museum from the collection blossoms expressed by perforations and /"^k of the late Heber R. Bishop colored by a background of tinselly gold.
^ ^ is a Japanese helmet (only So, also, the apical ornament, instead of the cranial portion, or hachi) which has merely bounding a large central opening, an exceptional interest to the student of the sacred hachiman-~a, through which the
Japanese armor. It is not only one of the mind of the wearer was believed to come latest specimens of its in closer rapport with
kind, but, very rare heavenly influence, is in this decadent here an elaborate period, an admirable solid rosette in the example of the art of form of a chr\'santhe- the armorer. The mum, again decadent
hachi is noteworthy in treatment, the for a number of rea- petals perforated and sons. It recalls the colored by means of head-pieces of the a golden background. Ashikaga period The decoration of the (1336-1600)^ in its rim of this rosette is shape, in the great also an evidence of rim in the region of the inferior taste of the apical ornament, a late period; for the
in its material, for it marginal ornament, a
is exclusively of iron, sepal-shaped -j, has in the archaic way in been given a series which the loops and of perforated plum " CRANIAL PORTION OF JAPANESE HELMET pegs of the four dev blossoms, which again 1850 points are repre- mar the ancient de- sented, and in the wide ornamental band sign. The absence of a margin adjusted {koshi-kumo) which passes around the for a wide, down-bent brow-peak is also a hachi near and parallel to its brim. On the modern characteristic. other hand, it has not copied quite accur- There can be little doubt thai the present ately the early Japanese helmet, and head-piece was designed for a personage of further study brings out a number of fea- the highest rank, possibl\- for a kuge, or tures symptomatic of the latest period of imperial kinsman, for the sixteen-petaled armor-making in Japan: thus, on the four chrysanthemum which forms here the wide and decorated rays which span the central ornament could be borne onl\ b\- hachi (which are simple in early specimens), the greatest princes; and the fact that few good arms were being prodticed al ^This suggests the revival of interest during that time lessens the probabilitN of its the early nineteenth century in matters con- having belonged to a minor nt)ble. .\U)re- nected with early Japanese history. It was this bands bear no revival which helped to abolish the shogunate over, the wide ornamental and reestablish the emperor. less than nine radial strap-shaped ovud- .
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART ments\ shinodare (s\mbolized swords of da\' (equivalent of June i, 1850), of Fudo, god of wisdom and mercN'. Prince Satsuma a Samurai, Fukita To- The following inscription appears in the motani this made." usual position on the inner surface of the As a specimen of the best workmanship back of the hachi, translated literall\-: of the latest Tokugawa period, the present "In the former period Kaeai, third hachi has no rival in the collections which \ear, in the summer, sixth month, first the writer has examined in Japan.
1\'
OBIECTS FROM THE WILLIAM CRLGER PELL COLLECTION OF ARMS
CROSSBOW, PROBABLE TVROLESE LATE SIXTEENTH CENTLR'l
the Room of Recent Accessions are bow was set. Probablx from the T\ rol INshown a number of arms collected h\ but of somewhat later date is a wheel- the late William Cruger Pell during lock rifle, also elaboralel\' inlaid. These a long residence abroad and now pre- pieces are of excellent workmanship and, sented to the Museum in his memor\ unlike the majorit\ of objects of this kind, Among these objects is a cross-bow beau- have suffered but little restoration. Some- tifull\ inlaid, probably of T\ rolese work- what similar in t> pe to the foregoing are a manship, dating from the later part of the brace of wheellock pistols of the earl\'
sixteenth centurx : with it is a bunch of seventeenth centurx with knob-shaped well-preserved bolts, or quarrels, together handles, probabh of south German work- with the winder by which the heav\ steel manship. The present gift includes a number of halberds, powder horns and ^ It is hard to determine accurately the military rank indicated by these ornaments. 1 woof them spanners, several court swords and pieces appear on the helmet of an officer ranking about of armor, including morions from the as a captain, four indicate a colonel, and six or Munich civil guard (about lOooi. seven, a general. But their use does not appear The donor is .Mrs. Ridgely Hunt, a to ha\ e indicated fi.xed rank at all periods and in all pro\ inces. daughter of Mr. Pell. V NOTE ON JAPANESE HELMETS
interesting helmets have anese helmets, through which the head FOURrecently been added to the col- of the wearer was supposed to come into lection of Japanese armor. One contact with heavenly influences. The of these, from the Burnett sale, present head-piece bears the inscription is a deeply rounded war-hat, repousse, from "Made in Yedo, Bushiu. Nagasone of a single piece of iron. It is in the form of a Echizen." This is probably Nagazonc resting "devil-fish" (octopus), with its Koyetsu, the well-known sword-artist who
JAPANESE HELMET, XVIII CENTURY tentacles retracted. It dates probably flourished about 1660, and prepared blades from the late eighteenth century, and like for the court of the Tokugawa shoguns. many similar objects, is attributed to one Of the same period (seventeenth centurx) of the great Miochin family of armorers. is a helmet, Corcan in style, with a low It lacks a signature, however. A second sugar-loaf dome, bearing the crest of the helmet, this from the Matsuki sale, is of daimyo of Nambu. In this specimen, the admirable quality and is an example of the brow-guard is formed in the shape of shells technical skill of the Japanese artist- {awahe), and the surface of the cranial armorer; the cranial portion is dome- dome has been chiseled, leaving a delicate shaped, representing doubtless the sacred tracery in relief. A rare feature is the "egg," or the Buddhist tama, symbol of neck-guard of man\' delicate steel lam- immortality; the apical point, however, inae, unlacquered. It is altogether of the has been developed into a rudimentary best type of workmanship and is a valu- hachiman-ia, an opening typical of Jap- able acquisition. A fourth helmet is THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART poorer in quality and is apparently of is of one piece, fashioned boldly as a later date (about 1750). But it is inter- rabbit, which for centuries has appeared esting as a literal tour de force on the part in Japanese art as the s\ mbol of the of the artist. The entire cranial portion m\'stery of generation.
WAR HAT, LATE XVIII CENTURY FROM THE BURNETT COLLECTION
10 SWORD-GUARDS, PRIMITIVE JAPANESE, EARLIER THAN 7OO A. D.
VI
ACCESSIONS OF PRIMITIVE JAPANESE ARMS AND ARMOR
Imperial Museum at Uyeno early sword-blades, three important sword- THEPark, Tokyo, has recently sent guards, one of which is incrusted with gold, to the Metropolitan Museum in fragments of early scale armor and of a exchange an important collection corselet: there is also a primitive helmet. of primitive Japanese arms and armor. It Among horse trappings are a stirrup, bit, includes the best of the duplicates gathered and cross-shaped (bronze) ornaments. by the governmental authorities of Japan At the present time, then, the Museum's during the archaeological explorations of materials for illustrating early stages in many years and it is therefore an acquisi- the evolution of Japanese armor are reason- tion of uncommon value. And especially ably complete; for, in addition to the is it timely since the Museum's newly foregoing objects, there are represented arranged exhibition of Japanese armor is a well-preserved corselet of the "Jimmu inadequately represented in "primitives." Tenno period," several models of burial The objects now received include, best of mound images (which came to be placed all, one of the very large two-edged bronze in the barrow in lieu of the attendants, spear-heads (tsukushi-boko) characteristic horses, etc., of the dead personage), and of the region of Tsushima. They are ex- a number of interesting horse trappings, ceedingly rare and of great antiquity, dating including a saddle-bow incrusted with probably earlier than the Christian era, gold. Judged from these objects, the and prior to the period of burial mounds. Japanese civilization of this early period The remaining objects are later, but ante- was clearly of a high order, not inferior in date the Near 700 A. D. They include its technical processes to that of contem- armor and spear-points of bronze and iron, porary western Europe.
DOUBLE-EDGED SPEAR-HEAD (tSUKUSHI-BOKo) ^OO B. C. (?)
I I VII
GIFT OF A TURKO-AUSTRIAN CANNON TO THE COLLECTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR
Museum has recentl\' re- in fact, that it could be drawn b\' a single THEceived as a gift from a Trustee, soldier. The barrel is of Damascus steel Mr. Rutherfurd Stu\\esant, an and is decorated with a foliated design of interesting Turko-Austrian can- silver, inlaid. It carried a ball only three non, dating from the late seventeenth quarters of an inch in diameter. Speci- century. It possesses an original car- mens similar to the foregoing are found riage, retaining its color, red and white, in a number of European arsenals, and and reinforced with ornamental bands of two specimens of the same type have wrought iron. Cannon of this type, as recentl\- been added to the collection of Baron Potier of Vienna points out, were the King of Rumania. used extensively during the epoch of the The suggestion ma\- be made that Turk- Turkish operations around Vienna: they ish guns of the present light model were are exceedingly small (5 ft. long and 15 in. originall}' mounted on stocks as wall pieces high) and could be rapidl\' transported and that thev were arranged with gun- without the aid of horses even over the carriages at a later date—late seventeenth roughest mountain roads. It is so light, or e\en eighteenth century.
CANNON, TURKO-AUSTRIAN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
12 VIII
A GIFT OF JAPANESE SWORD-GUARDS FROM JAPAN
Museum has received a gift Then he requested me to sell him three of
THEof three sword-guards from a the number, but this also I declined doing. Japanese samurai. Accompany- "Subsequently he called twice upon me ing the gift was a letter a transla- and again on the evening of the 20th of tion of which is here reproduced, not only October, 1905, when he requested me to as illustrating the kindly feeling of edu- loan the three tsuba for a period of five cated Japan for America, and the high years, to be exhibited in the Museum for esteem in which they hold their objects of educational purposes. This, however, I
SWORD-GUARDS, SIGNED KANEIYE art, but as a characteristic and interesting also felt constrained to refuse, yet when portraiture of the donor by himself. I reflected over the persistent zeal ex-
"On July 29th in the 38th year of Meiji hibited I could but admire the same, and (1905), Prof. Bashford Dean, Curator of considering that the request was on behalf Arms and Armor of the New York Metro- of an American institution, while unable politan Art Museum, together with Mr. ,to consent to receive any compensation,
Amakasu Isao, a student of law of the I determined to make an offering of the University of Kyoto, called at my resi- desired objects rather than exhibit them dence in the latter city, and stated that as requested, and 1 stated that such was he (Dean) had learned in Tokyo that I my desire. To the inquir\' thereupon possessed a large collection of Japanese made by Prof. Dean as to m\' moti\e in armor and arms and expressed his desire this act, I replied: That at the time of to be permitted to see them. I consented the Tokugawa Shogunate I was a militarx and thereupon brought out and exhibited attendant and resided in Osaka at the to Prof. Dean various articles of armor, Castle. When 1 was \et a child eight etc. Among the things shown were six years of age Commodore Perr\ came to tsuba made by Kaneiye. These he asked Uraga, Sagami, for the purpose of open- me to sell him, but I declined to do so. ing our ports to foreign trade and com-
'3 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
merce. A promise to that effect having same to the knowledge of his Goxernment been obtained b\- him from the then and that upon receipt of the necessarx' government, from that time on until the notification to be sent me b\' the Governor present Meiji period our intercourse has of Kyoto after a request to that effect by spread far and wide with all foreign na- the proper Japanese officials thereunto tions, and that our honored flag should moved by a communication from the Em-
float today over all the seas was largely bassy of the United States at Tok>o, 1 due to the friendly offices of the American should forward the articles offered. Republic. Again during the recent con- "This was entirely satisfactorx' to me.
flict between the Empire of Japan and Meanwhile as I was growing old and at
that of Russia—thanks to the warm and any time 1 might be overtaken b\' death,
1 had the promise of those of m\' house- hold surviving me to execute and fulfil m\' undertaking to the letter. "On the morning of 2ist October, 1905, Prof. Dean left K\oto and returned the following year to his countrv passing
through India. 1 saw him off from the Kyoto station, bidding him farewell. "On the 26th of Januarx' of this year
(1907) I received a communication from .Ambassador Wright offering kindlx' to transmit through his office to America the three tsuba referred to herein." (Signed) Coda .Masauji Samurai.
.\la\', 1907 Japan, Cit\ of Kyoto.
SWORD-GUARD, SIGNED KANEIYE The sword-guards were the work of the oldest and one of the most celebrated friendly attitude of the President of the families of Japanese workers, or chasers, in United States in his successful action in metal, Kane'iye of Fushimi, ^'amashiro. putting an end to that deadl\' conflict The works of these artists are held in the by bringing about the Peace Conference highest estimation b\' connoisseurs, not at Portsmouth, with results yet to follow onl\' because of their intrinsic beaut\', but though still unknown— 1 felt much grati- also because thev represent an important tude for the many and valuable services stage in the development of the art of the rendered by America to my countrx . So tsuba-makers, for it was in these guards therefore when Prof. Dean continued to that thev first practised the art of inlaying express so great a desire for some of the the iron with the little lines of gold and objects in m\- treasured collection, I con- silver, to produce the brilliant effect of these sented to part with the same and send pictures in metal. them to the Art Museum of New York as One of the sword-guards gixcn b\' .Mr. an evidence of my warm personal regard Goda represents a fisherman b\ the side for the American people. of a cave, another shows us Fudosan and "Upon this, my statement to Mr. Dean, a willow tree, while on the third, perhaps he was and expressed himself to be ex- the finest of them all, a kingfisher in a tremely gratified, and said that upon his group of reeds is indicated with remark- return to America he would bring the able skill.
14 IX
THE HALL OF JAPANESE ARMOR
N the new ar- from his shrine at Utatsu. Of slightly rangement of later date are fragments of shoulder guards
the Hall of and from the period of about 1200 is an I Japanese Ar- entire corselet and helmet, richly decor- mor, the effort has ated and of the highest class of workman- been made to rep- ship, doubtless the most important exhibit resent not merely in the gallery, and later to be described in specimens of the the Bulletin. The thirteenth, fourteenth, armorer's art, but and fifteenth centuries are represented in as far as possible considerable detail. Among the additions the evolution of to these early objects are the corselets the art itself. In {haramaki-do and do-maru), descriptions this regard, curi- of which have been published in Japan, ously enough, the from the collection of the veteran connois-
hall is apparently seur, the late Professor Chitora Kawasaki unique—not mere- of the College of Fine Arts, Tokyo. Also ly in collections in foreign countries, but a beautiful many-colored {iro-iro-odoshi) even in Japan. Thus, in the sequence of corselet which has an interesting docu- forms represented the visitor may now fol- low the changes in the elaborate war trap- pings, which expressed in no small degree the art history of Japan, whether in metal, leather, or textiles, for a period of nearly two thousand years. In two cases near the en- trance of the gallery are many important "primitives," mainly from burial mounds explored by the Imperial Government. These include arms and armor dating from the prehistoric period to about the ninth century A. D., swords, sword-guards, a superb bronze ceremonial spear, a nearly complete iron corselet, and iron helmets, most of these exchanged with the Tokyo Museum. From the ninth and tenth centuries there are fragments of corselets. From the eleventh century specimens of IRON JAPANESE CORSELET scales, leather and silken binding, taken, BEFORE 700 A. D. during its restoration, from one of the three harnesses of this period extant and ob- mentary history: it was given earl\- in the tained for the curator through the kind- seventeenth century to the Japanese gen- ness of Professor Seki of the Tokyo Art eral Shiraishi of Sendai h\ his daim\o College. Probably dating from the end of Prince Date Masamune, and in the letlor the eleventh century is a bit of the "votive of gift it is stated that "the corselet was harness of Hachiman Taro," which from to be prized on account of its ha\ ing been its history may be authentic; it comes worn by Fujiwara-no-Hidehira," well
15 ARMOR ATTRIBUTED TO FUJIWARA NO HIDHHIRA HALL OF JAPANESE ARMOR, I916, LOOKING NORTH
HALL OF JAPANESE ARMOR, I916, LOOKING SOUTH THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART known as the teacher and friend of the represented in the collection; for of this heroic prince Yoshitsune (twelfth cen- period about ten harnesses and man\- head- tury). Whether, however, the corselet pieces, shoulder guards, and fragments are actuall>' belonged to the Fujiwara ma\' be exhibited. Interesting among the acces- questioned, for the armor probably dates sions is a partial suit which was obtained from the fourteenth century (it may, it is about 1878 from the ancient monaster)' at true, have been remodeled); but there Ko\a-San and was used by a warrior- can be little doubt that Masamune be- monk; this is a rare relic of the epoch of lieved the tradition. And from that time Nobunaga's wars with the monasteries.
'-.''' •-• ' 'i;i .—•,-
if
I \^ \
1S^3nmmmmmMii^l -*-\\ii \\\} ^-'
CORSELET, JAPANESE, XIV-X\ CENTURY FROM THE KAWASAKI COLLECTION
till the present it has remained an heirloom During this centurv, it ma\' be recalled, in the famil\- of General Shiraishi. in- European trade came to establish itself deed, it was only due to the intercession in Japan, and there are now exhibited, of the present head of the daim\ o famil\' dating from about this time, several por- of Sendai, Count Date Kunimune, that tions of western armor which had been the corselet was fmall\' ceded, "to show adapted to Japanese use. the people of .America an adequate ex- The seventeenth and eighteenth centu- ample of the armorer's skill in ancient ries under the Tokugawa shoguns brought Japan." With this corselet was obtained Japan peace and stagnant prosperity, and an ancient war-banner of the Date. the trappings of the militar\- class became In the sixteenth centurx' decadence in ceremonial, often richh wrought and pro- Japanese armor had alread\ begun. This fusel\- decorated. Manx specimens of can be traced adequatelx in the specimens these are exhibited, including a prince's
18 ARM DEFENSES OF A DAIMYO OF^NAMBU XVII-XVIII CENTURY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART suit (of one of the Sendai family) of about moner who frequented }'early for a stated 1740. But the main effort has been to period the court of the shogun at Tokyo. exhibit t\'pes, whether of breastplates, The collection represents also the equip- head-pieces, masks, arm and shoulder ment of the horse of this period, and in a guards, especially the peculiar forms newl\' prepared case is the life-size model which the early Japanese works on armor of the horse of a prince of Inaba (late selected for illustration. By their aid the eighteenth centur\ ) bearing the ceremonial visitor can reconstruct with reasonable ac- harness, trappings, and great leading ropes, curacx' the equipment of the noble or com- all in scarlet silk.
JAPANESE HELMET (hACHi) XVIII-XIX CENTURY
20 X A SPECIMEN OF EARLY JAPANESE ARMOR
most important object in the oto, the ancient capital of Japan. Here it THEnewly arranged hall of Japanese had been lost for centuries in a secret pan- armor is undoubtedly the helmet try of a kura (fire-proof storehouse) which
and corselet of a princely har- had once belonged to a temple. It is
ness dating from the "golden era" of indeed to this fact that the armor owes its Japanese art—seven centuries ago. For present condition, for in its silken wrap-
:ZaSiLh
EARLY JAPANESE ARMOR AN O-YOROI OF ABOUT 1200
not only is it of intrinsic interest as armor, pings, carefully packed in a lacquered chest, but it furnishes in its various parts exam- this in turn surrounded by a casing of straw, ples of the extraordinary skill of the early the armor has retained its original colors, artist in steel and bronze, of the silk- together with its mountings of leather and weaver and leather-worker, and above all silk. It is believed that the leathern casing the artist-decorator. of the corselet, with its pictured O-Fudo,
The present specimen was discovered is the only complete specimen of this rare about 1902 in a small village in the pro- period; so also the fastening loops and vince of Tamba, within fifty miles of Ky- sword-holder are said to be unique.
21 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
The age of the armor can be determined finish and delicacy shown in the smaller with reasonable precision b\' comparison details, e, g., in the metalwork, in the with similar objects of known antecedents bindings inserted where the various pat- which are preserved among the national terns of leather meet, or in the designs of treasures of Japan. And of these, which the stamped leather. These were stamped, for the most part were illustrated about a it appears, line by line, not b\' a general century ago in the monograph on earl\' block or through a stencil, as in later har- Japanese armor given in the classic Shiu- nesses. The leathern cover of the corselet ko-Jiusshiu (Ten Subjects of Ancient Art, showing 0-Fudo (god of inflexible judg- 1797), there are four specimens which ment) with the attendant figures, Seitaka- agree closel\' with the present one. One Doji and Kongara-Doji, is, as alreadx' of these, the votive armor of Yoritomo, noted, believed to be unique in its preserva- preserved in the shinto temple of Hinomi- tion. From the viewpoint of an artist it saki, dates from the end of the twelfth deserves the closest studw 1 1 shows, for ex- centurw Another, of about the same date, ample, the skill of the earl\' designers, who was preserved until the early nineteenth with the fewest lines have been able to century in the temple of Kurama and, concentrate in their work so much life judged from engravings, was so similar to and movement. Witness, for example, the specimen now exhibited that there was the expression in the arms of the figures or at first a suspicion that the Kurama harness the swirl of the flames around the head of had been abstracted from the temple and the central deity. not destroxed b\' fire. The date of the present harness, granting With all of these specimens our present alwa\'s the accuracx* of the date assigned armor agrees closelv in general design, in to the similar specimens in Japan, cannot the size, shape, and peculiar flatness of the be much later than 1200 A. D. (first half of scales {hoiane) of which the armor is made Kamakura period). For this determina- up, in the quality of silk cording and tion we are indebted to the critics, Mr. leatherwork, in the wide kusaiuri, falling Imamura, director of the Imperial Collec- apron-like from the corselet, in the broad tion of Arms and Armor (Yu-shiu-kwan), neck-guard of the helmet, and in the great and Professor Seki, of the Imperial College ear-guards which roll outward from either of Art in Tokyo, who were so good as to side. But especially striking is the simi- examine the armor before it was sent from larity in the quality of workmanship, the Japan.
22 —
XI AN ACQUISITION OF EARLY BRONZE ARMOR
Museum has recently ac- from a single spot. These, however, were THE:quired by purchase a small but of simple form and lacked the elaborate valuable gathering of early embossed decoration^ of the present Italian bronze armor; in all, six pieces specimen. The curious rods which are five casques and a corselet. The most im- attached at the base of the triangular crest portant of these is a richly decorated casque were fashioned for the support of some
CASQUE, BRONZE ABOUT SEVENTH CENTURY B. with triangular crest, dating not later than good-sized ornament, probablx' in the shape the seventh century B. C, which was ex- of the wings of birds. cavated in Capua. This is one of the best The corselet, excavated at Campobasso, of its kind and has already been pictured is typically Greek in form and of the fourth and described (von Duhn, Annali dell' century; it is of excellent qualit\- and its Inst., 1883, p. 188, pi. N). This type of modeling of the naked chest is worth\' of casque is one of the rarest and most decora- the best period of Greek workmanship. tive of early head-pieces; it is referred to as From the same localit\' and of the same, or
"Celtic," but it typifies the later bronze only slightly later date, is the casque with age of the epoch known most satisfactorily embossed ornament and heav\- lateral from the contents of graves in the region of bosses; it was evidentl\- worn b\ an Italiote Hallstatt. The present form of head- ^According to Freiherr v. Lipperheide (Cor- piece, moreover, is well known from the pus Cassidum, 1902). there are known only six find at Falaise in Normandy in 1832, when casques bearing the "Htruscan" ornamentation no less than nine specimens were unearthed and ha\ing the crest and projecting rods. 23 ROMAN HELMET. BRONZE THIRD CENTURY B. C.
ROMAN HELMET, BRONZE THIRD CENTURY B. C. (?) BRONZE PLASTRON, GREEK, FOURTH CENTURY B. C.
BRONZE BACK-PLATE, GREEK, FOURTH CENIURV B. C. THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART chief of high rank, since it shows traces of a of the second or third century B. C, and golden wreath or crown. It resembles the last, Sicilian, which, although simple, closely a specimen discovered about 1880 at is of the rare conical shape characteristic of Olympia. an earlier period—probably the fourth The remaining casques are from southern century B. C. Italv and Sicily. Two of these are Roman
XII A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ARMOR FOR HORSE AND MAN
^ROM M. V. R. Bachereauof Paris, wooden horse-figure which displaxs it the well-known armor dealer, the todaw Museum has latel\' obtained a com- For securing this interesting object the F plete harness for horse and man. Museum is indebted to its former trustee It is probabl\' of German workmanship and vice-president, Mr. William H. Riggs, and dates from the time of the Thirt\- now of Paris, well known to connoisseurs as Years War, as late possibly as 1630. the owner of the most important private
It is an example, therefore, of the collection of European arms and armor. latest t\pe of workmanship, when the It was he who expertised the present armor artist-armorer had been replaced b\' the and gave his time generously in arranging fonrnisseur, but interesting none the less on for its acquisition. Its provenance and this account; for it shows evidence that a few details are given in a letter from M. "improved" methods were in use and we Bachereau. know that evidence of this kind does not "The armor was secured by the elder appear in harnesses of earlier date. Thus, Bachereau at a sale held in Heidelberg as in the Louis X 1 1 1 harness in the Artillery in September, 1878; he was at that time Museum in Paris, the metal bears the associated with M. Henri, then the fore- marks—which, bv the wa\-, are small and most dealer in arms in Paris, and M. Henri obscure—of having been spread out under retained as his share of the purchases the heavy rollers, instead of having been present object. He sold it later to the stamped out of ingots of metal. And the painter, M. Lesrel, in whose possession it metal shows, too, that the earl\- milling has remained up to this year ... I was imperfect!)' developed since one finds have remoxed from it the trapping which that the slag which the metal here and there had been added to it in later \ears, possibl\' carried was sometimes rolled out in difl'erent while in the hands of M. Lesrel, and all the directions indicating that the rollers were parts remaining are good (i. e., authentic) small, and that the plates were roiled except the mail (modern) mounted on the repeatedly. In modern iron-steel, on the neck, which is indispensable for the en- other hand, the process of rolling has been semble. At the suggestion of Mr. Riggs so developed that slag, if at all present in I have restored a plate which was lacking the metal, is pressed out as narrow bands on the right knee, using for this purpose ever in the same direction. a fragment of an original armor. And
In the seventeenth century, it may be at his suggestion also I have readjusted remarked, armor was rapidly becoming an arm-guard and the garde-reins, which discarded; horse armor was rarely used, had not been disposed correctly with re-
and even then it appears to have served spect to the cuirass." rather for parade than for actual use. The The present harness will form the cen- present harness was set up in some earl\' tral object in the hall in which the Dino
Waffensaal, apparently on the same carved Collection is now exhibited. 26 ARMOR FOR MAN AND HORSE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY XIII
A GIFT OF EMBROIDERED VOKO-ZLNA (CHAMPION WRESTLERS APRONS)
ma\' be true that in Japan the arts neglectful of the sentimental ones. He ITof the potter, the metal-worker, and must be proficient in courage, strength, the lacquerer have declined, but there judgment, activit>, endurance, courtesy, can be little question that the em- magnanimity, and a host of other things, broiderers have advanced technically and and he who has passed safelx through the that their skill in the treatment of themes fierv' tests which have led to champion- in relief and in the use of metal threads is ship^ becomes a personage of no little supreme. Whether the present artistic importance coram populo—as the friend of taste has kept pace with the advance in princes and the prince of friends. technical skill and judgment is, on the other The present aprons are three: a lac- hand, more open to question. Be this as it quer one worn b\" the Yoko--una (Cham- ma>, the Museum has recently received pion of all Japan), the others by his at- as a gift some wonderful specimens of tendants, the Tachinochi (sword-bearer) Japanese embroidery, which in workman- and the Tsuyuharai (dresser). In them ship is the latest word in technical profi- they appear in the ceremonial entrance ciency. The donor is Tanineman Hita- when the wrestlers salute the audience, chiyama. the champion wrestler of Japan, and from the importance of the occasion samurai of Mito. who, making a tour of the aprons become vestments upon which the world, has been pleased with the Mu- admiring craftsmen lavish the most costl\ seum to such a degree that he has presented workmanship. Then, too, there is a his ^ oko-zuna aprons to it. m> stical side to them, for a privilege sixteen To appreciate this gift at its full worth centuries old allows them to be girded with one must know certain of the elements of the shinio rope. The present objects, it
Japanese psycholog> and sociolog> ; for may be added, are possibly the most elab- the wrestler in Japan stands on a social orate of their class—the trophy given by a basis quite different from that of the usual large Japanese organization. professional athlete; he must be an ex- * There are no less than a thousand companies ponent of ancient samurai virtues, pre- of wrestlers in the various parts of Japan all eminently of the physical virtues, but not competing for final honors.
28 XIV THE REARRANGED ARMOR GALLERY
the collection of arms time suggestions have been obtained from
WHENand armor of the Due de Dino- various European experts, it and was de-
Perigord was purchased by cided to adopt the "Riggs case," which is the Museum in 1904, it was used in the private gallery of Mr. William placed on exhibition in the gallery adjoining H. Riggs, of Paris, and is the outcome of the room containing the Bishop Collection the experiments of many years. This case
COLLECTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR, GALLERY 3
of Jade. Here cases had already been is raised about a foot from the ground and provided and the objects were to be shown has a light metal frame, without ornament. until a more suitable hall for displaying In the present rearrangement of the gal- them could be secured. It was evident, lery the new cases stand about three feet however, that the armor in this collection, from the walls, and are placed at intervals, to say nothing of the decorated swords, so that a visitor may examine the objects daggers, and fire-arms, should be so exhib- from all sides. And a better background ited that a visitor could inspect it at very has been provided in the lighter colored close range and from all points of view. (pearl-gray) walls with their decorations of They were therefore to be given cases of ap- trophies, war banners, and Gothic tapestrw propriate height, which should not be placed In this last regard the Museum expresses its against the walls, and which should be as thanks to Clarence H. Macka\ , Esq., who, light, dust-proof, and strongly framed as learning what was needed, lent at once from modern methods would permit. Since that Harbor Hill his suite of four tapestries. 29 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
These are of an especially appropriate pe- view of two sides of the gallerw It shows riod, the beginning of the sixteenth centur\", in the foreground the Louis XI 11 armor for when European armor was about at its man and horse acquired b\' the .Museum apogee; the\- represent courtly scenes (from during the \ear 1908; near the center of the life of Louis XII and Anne of Brittan\) the picture are the Gothic harnesses, in- in front of which armor finds an appropriate cluding one (second from the left, in the place. For the reopening of the galler> case containing four figures) borrowed from Mr. Macka\- lent also the coronation the Stuyvesant Collection, and directlv in sword of the Electors Palatine, .Archbishops front are suits of armor of Maximilian's of Maxence (earl\' seventeenth centurx), time, with fluted surfaces. Here again a half-armor, part of which belonged to one of the specimens was kindl\" lent b\'
Philip 11, a casque b\' Seusenhofer (earl\' -Mr. Stuxvesant. For the present the sixteenth centurx), and a remarkable smaller arms of the collection have not been rapier. placed on view pending the completion of In a neighboring cut appears a general suitable cases.
30 XV RECENT ACCESSIONS OF ARMS AND ARMOR
AT a recent sale of arms and armor of Swiss armor. Among the pole-arms /\ (the Whawell Collection) the secured are a number of unusual forms. /~"\ Museum secured several desira- Among them a Polish halberd of the late ^ ^ ble objects. Among these was a sixteenth century, a fourteenth-century Swiss corselet of the Landesknecht type poleaxe, a curious doubled korseke, and an (about 1540), bearing the Swiss cross in its ahlspiess (fifteenth century) with its orig- decoration, which is said to have been ob- inal rondelle. Two early swords were ob- tained by a Vienna collector, Herr Theel, tained which fill gaps in the collection; one from the arsenal of Lucerne. It deserves of them is a panierhrecher (late fifteenth mention, because it is a form which is fre- century), with a long handle, short- quently illustrated and described, though branched guard, and a long, stout blade, none the less rare— like, indeed, all examples triangular in section.
31 X\I
A BRONZE CORSELET OF THE HALLSTATT PERIOD
RECENT accession to the col- The provenance of this corselet is not lection of arms and armor is a definitely known. Forrer assigns it to bronze corselet of the "'Celtic"' northern Italy or the neighboring region in A or Italiote t\pe. dating from the France. It certainl\- differs from the speci-
BRONZE CORSELET V-VII CENTLRV B. C.
fifth to the seventh century B. C. It is mens obtained in the Latium countr\ which of great rarit\- (only seven specimens of this are known to the writer, and on the other period appear to be known), and is in ex- hand it agrees cIoseI\ with the three plas- cellent preservation. It was at one time trons belonging to M. Constantin, which in the Forman Collection, and has been were discovered near Geneva (a Regnier) a described and figured by Dr. R. Forrer few years ago. Its form is archaic, straight (Reallexicon, p. 591), also in L'rgeschichte in the back and sides and low in the des Europaers. shoulders, representing an evolutional
3^ NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR stage which appears as well in armor of form of the series of tubercles deftly approximately the same period in Greece, repousse, usual in the work of the "Hall- Assyria, Egypt, and even in Japan (cf. the statt" epoch: as shown in the illustration, primitive cuirass in the hall of Japanese they are grouped in rows and circles, armor). arranged on the breast and shoulders
Noteworthy in the present corselet is the and around the waist, suggesting lines combination of the plastron and dossiere of body-adornment (tattooing, scars, or in a single piece, which closed elastically on paint-marks) worn by the primitive Euro- the body of the wearer. It was then firmly pean. held in place by shoulder bands and by a With this corselet will be exhibited the wide belt, probably leathern, the place for remarkable crested casque of similar age, adjusting which can be traced in the orna- acquired by the Museum in 1907 (Bulle- mentation. This ornamentation takes the tin, vol. Ill, No. 2, here Article XI).
BRONZE CORSELET V-VII CENTURY B. C.
33 X\II RLTHERFLRD STL^AESANT
RLTHERFLRD STL'^\ESANT came its First Vice-President in February, died in Paris on Jul\' 4th. At 1905, an office which he resigned at the the time of his death he shared close of that \"ear because of expected ab- with .Mr. Joseph H. Choate the sence abroad. .At the time of his death distinction of having ser\ed continuouslx' he was a member of the Committee on as a Trustee of the Metropohtan Museum Paintings, a position which he had occu- of Art from the date of its organization on pied continuous!) since 1903.
RLTHERFLRD STLVVESANT, 1843-1909 FIRST P.ATRGN OF THE DEP.ART.MENT OF .AR.MOR
Ma\ 24. 1870, to the present time. Dur- There was no department of the Museum ing this entire period he maintained an collections in which Mr. Stuyvesant did not active interest in the affairs of the Museum, have an interest. His knowledge of art and his personal service was interrupted was broad and inclusive. He was es- onl\ b\ his frequent absence abroad. pecially- interested in arms and armor and
During his thirt\-nine \ ears of Trustee- in paintings, in both of which directions ship he ser\ed at different times on almost he was an expert. ever\- committee of the Museum. He was Mr. Stuwesant was the son of Lewis a member of its Executive Committee Morris Rutherfurd, the astronomer. By from 1875 to 1885, and again from 1903 the will of his mother's great-uncle, Peter to 1906. He was elected Second \'ice- Gerard Stuwesant, propert\- was left to President of the Museum in 1904, and be- him on condition that he change his name
34 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR to Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, which he was Columbia College in 1863. At the time authorized to do by act of Legislature. of his election as Trustee of the Mu- He was the representative of an old seum he was the youngest member of the New York family, and was graduated from Board,
MAXIMILIAN ARMOR, I515 STUYVESANT COLLHCTION
35 HELMET, 1590 STUYVESANT COLLECTION
BACKPLATE, I 59O STUYVESANT COLLECTION EMBOSSED ARMOR, I 59O STUYVESANT COLLECTION XVIII
RLTHERFLRD STLVVESANT. FiRST PATRON OF TnE MLSELM COLLECTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR
N earlier notice recorded the Augustus van Home Ellis. His interest was death of Rutherfurd Stuwesani, sho^Ti constantly through loans and gifts. a former vice-president and for It is only fair to say that by the death of A nearlv fortv vears a trustee of Mr. Stuvvesant there has been lost the
GOTHIC ARMOR, I47O STUYVESANT COLLECTION the .Museum. It did not record, however, pioneer and foremost collector of armor in his services in establishing for the first time the United States. His studies in this field in an American museum a department of were begun in the si.xiies, a time when it was arms and armor, and in being instrumental still possible to select objects of unusual in bringing to it some of the most interest- importance; he traveled ^"idely and was in ing objects in this field; for it was he who close touch uith museums and amateurs; negotiated for the collection of the Due de he attended in person the more important Dino, and it was through his efforts that Euroi>ean sales, such as the de Cosson. this was ultimately secured. He also Londesborough. and Spiizer. and from recommended to the .Museum the Ellis these he bore away some of the principal Collection which later was donated bv .Mr. objects. During a period of over fortx 38 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR years his collection continued to grow, and from the Spitzer Collection, the fluted har- it converted his family home "Tran- ness formerly in the possession of Lord quillity" at Allamuchy (N. J.) into a Stafford (these are now exhibited in the veritable museum, with vitrines of swords, Museum), the Bredalbane clavmore, the daggers, and enriched armor, lines of pan- half-suit, etched and gilded, bearing the oplies, and complete harnesses, among blazon of the Duke of Savo\', the early which he aimed to retain only objects of casques from the de Cosson sale, a remark- princely class. There, too, is preserved his able series of chain-armor, fragments of working library, which deserves especial armor of the fifteenth centur\', enriched mention. To enumerate the more impor- swords of the sixteenth century, embossed tant objects in his collection would be plastrons and casques. . . . Mr. Stuy- beyond the limits of this notice. He had, vesant did much to foster this branch of art however, the early Gothic harness from the archaeology and it will be difficult to fill the Spitzer sale, the half-armor said to have gap in the circle which his death has belonged to the Emperor Matthias, also caused.
39 XIX DEPARTMENT OF ARMS AND ARMOR THE UPKEEP OF THE COLLECTION
THROUGH the cooperation of Mr. den armorer who settled in Paris in the Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, Mr. time of the third Napoleon, and who in Clarence H. Mackay, and Dr. turn was the representative of a long series Bashford Dean, the Museum has of German artist-armorers. M. Tachaux secured for the coming \'ear the services brings with him the outillage of his master, of M. Daniel Tachaux of Paris, a skilled containing the most varied instruments,^ armorer, who will be intrusted with putting some of which have been used by genera- in order the enriched objects, remounting tions of armorers, and are known in no harnesses, and making the necessary repairs other branch of metalwork. Thus, there in the collections of arms and armor. M. are no less than two hundred varieties of Tachaux has an interesting record: he has hammers, and all of these, like armorers' executed the repairs in some of the best- implements generally, have their specific known European collections, and he is, in- names, names which, by the way, are of- deed, one of the few artists who preserve ten unrecorded. today the practices and traditions of the armorers' guilds of the Middle Ages; he is 'See No. XXIX, A Collection of Armorers' the pupil and successor of Klein, the Dres- Implements, on p. 62.
« 1
»3%i^v^^ |(^KiM»^^/jjjf^ ^*^^'^"(f *'^' rT*^ ^^^ -^^^ *' ' ,^Bt '^k
** '< "^^ \ 'JfLi^^J^\^ ^m^^^^ flBr^^ F , ---^-t ' 1 "^' ^''if^ ^^jk^^^ ^B J 1 ' ^ & V ^^''^^^^n
;J^ES^!^C^^^wft MF^^^iMl^^ gy ^^-""'^^^ "I^^W ^^ ENRICHED BREASTPLATES XVI AND XVII CENTURY RIGGS COLLECTION
40 XX NOTE ON THE "CASQUE OF JEANNE D'ARC"
only the rarest cases can ancient "It is a French basinet dating from the INarmor be attributed to historical end of the fourteenth or beginning of the personages, and it is clear that the fifteenth century. It retains part of the "Casque of Jeanne d'Arc" which the small chain which denotes that this casque Museum exhibits has little more than a has been suspended as an ex vofo in a legendary pedigree. Nevertheless, we have church. A heavy dent in the region of the received a letter from left cheek may well Mr. Andrew Lang, an have come from a war- authority on the his- hammer {hec-de-corhin), tory of Jeanne d'Arc, and two others on the which bears upon this right cheek appear to matter. The letter, have been the result from St. Andrews, Scot- of lance thrusts. Ac- land, dated Novem- cording to information ber 23, 1909, reads: obtained by the Due "Mr. Bruce-Gardyne de Dino, it seems that has sent me a photo- this basinet formerly graph of a basinet in hung above the main your Museum, from altar in the church of Orleans, traditionally Saint Pierre du Mar- attributed to Jeanne troi, at Orleans, where d'Arc. At the siege it ' passed as having of Jargeau, in June, belonged to Jeanne 1429, her life was saved d'Arc." by her chapeline (a light head-piece with- As the case stands, out vizor) when a heavy we are convinced (i) stone knocked her off that the casque is a scaling ladder. From French, (2) that it is Jargeau she went to VOTIVE CASQUE OF JEANNE D ARC of the period of Jeanne
Orleans for two or IN THE MUSEUM COLLECTION d'Arc, and (3) that it three days and she bears marks of contem- might naturally have dedicated the chape- porary service. In the last regard the line. evidence is satisfactory: for one reason, (Proces: vol. Ill, pp. 96-97.) the injuries clearly antedate the ancient "The coincidence is curious: we do not rusting of the head-piece. This, then, on any other occasion hear of her wearing makes it probable that the object was a vizorless head-piece." preserved because it was an ex voto— an assumption still more probable by
In this connection we may add what reason of the fragment of chain which is Baron de Cosson has written of this basi- attached to it —the condition of the ancient net. (Le Cabinet d'Armes de Maurice de rivet showing clearly that its attachment Talleyrand-Perigord. Paris. Rouveyre, to the basinet was primitive. It next re-
1 90 1.) mains to be proved that the casque for-
41 THE METROPOLITAN MLSELM OF ART merly hung above the main altar in the weapons, one of them possiblv a crossbow church of Saint Pierre du Martroi, at bolt.
Orleans, and it would be interesting to It is unfortunate for our present purpose confirm the observation which is reported that there is no contemporary portrait of to have been made by the Due de Dino, Jeanne d'Arc which would give us a rea- that the links of the chain now attached sonabl\- accurate picture of her armor. to the basinet agree with those said to be The earliest portrait hitherto known (it has still hanging in the church. But even been cited by Mr. Lang in his life of Jeanne granting this provenance of the casque, it d'Arc) dates sixtv or seventy years from yet remains to be demonstrated that the e-.v the time of her death: and its armor is of voio belonged to the maid and not to one this late period, with an armet, florid of her officers. L'nhappih', too, the casque epaulieres. and tassets. No better evi- can hardl\- be the " cbapeliue" referred dence is forthcoming in a second miniature to in the record which Mr. Lang cites. ialso on parchment) which dates from a at least if the contemporary term was slightly earlier period, and is now in the accurately chosen, for a chapeline is well collection of Mr. Jacques Reubell in Paris. known to have had a brim, while the pres- In this we observe that although the armor ent casque is a t\ pical basinet which has is unlike that in the first miniature, the face merel\' lost its mi^ail. or face-guard. is the same, strongly suggesting that the Moreover, its injuries were not caused b\- a early artists were familiar with an authentic crushing stone, but were effected by pointed portrait of Jeanne d'.-\rc.
42 XX
A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY WHEELLOCK PISTOL
AMONG recent accessions in arms a signature and date: inside the lock plate, /\ and armor is a seventeenth- modestly hidden by the artist, appears /"^k century wheellock pistol of ex- "Felix Weeder, fecit in Zurich, 1630" (pos-
^ . ^ traordinary workmanship. It is sibly 1639). of the short-handled form typical of the Pistols of this type and period are not period. Its barrel is slim, and is incased uncommon, but it is rare to find one richly for nearly half its length in decorated gilt ornamented. Those best known to the bronze. The stock is of pear-wood, closely writer are in the museums of Vienna, Stock- ornamented with fine gilt wire, in a pattern holm, and Turin, where examples, especially of foliage and traceries, and further en- of Brescian workmanship, are preserved. riched with a number of inset silver pla- The specimen next in importance to the quettes which picture mounted huntsmen, present one, so far as can be discovered, is
WHEELLOCK PISTOL, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
armed with pistols, urging their hounds on in the royal collection at Turin, where it deer, hare, and boar. On the butt there is bears the number 659. In this the lock an engraved plaquette depicting a hunts- plate is almost undecorated, and the pla- man in buff coat with slashed sleeves, and quettes are of nacre.
with wide hat and feather. The rim sur- In arms, as in other art objects, it is
rounding the butt is of copper gilt, as well, usually difficult to trace ownership farther
also, as the trigger, lock plate, and wheel back than a few decades; if of great value guard; all of these are executed with great —and arms have been valued highlx' for care. Worthy of especial notice is the over a century—they have changed hands foliate ornamentation deeply engraved on quietly and frequently. It is noteworthy', the lock plate; even the back of the lock, therefore, that we are able to tell something
which is normally buried in the wooden of the history of the present arm.
stock, is found to be richly decorated. It belonged to the late Canon Harford, of
Similar engraving appears on the steel Westminster Abbey, and his account of it parts of the pistol —the hammer and the is at hand. In his MS. we read: "This side of the wheel, a detail of which is shown wheel-lock pistol was bought b\' Charles
herewith. On the other hand, the trigger Joseph Harford, M.A., F.S.A.." J. P.. of
guard is not equal in workmanship to the Stapleton Park, Gloucestershire, about adjacent parts, and is probably a contem- 1790, of a Scotch nobleman, in whose fam-
porary repair. It is fortunate that so ily it had been handed down as having been good an example of the armorer's art bears in the celebrated collection of Kinii Charles
43 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART the First. It is now in the possession of longed to a great personage; one may find his grandson, the Rev. Frederick K. Har- in the foliate decoration of the stock, the ford, M.A., F.S.A., of Westminster Abbey. thistle, the rose, and the shamrock, and to
. No specimen in the Ambras or the make more probable the idea that the Dresden collection approaches it for ex- object was prepared "in order" for King quisite beauty of workmanship. It is of Charles, one might even convince himself German-Swiss workmanship— Basle or Nu- that the figures of the plaquettes are por- remberg." The last is not a bad diagnosis, traits (or as nearly portraits as a foreign as diagnoses go, but he would have been artist could make them) of the king him- closer to the mark if he had removed the self. Add to all this that Prince Rupert lock and found the signature. It appears was particularl\' interested in the royal col- further that the elder Harford showed his lection of arms, having been keeper of the purchase to his friend, Sir Walter Scott, armor\', and finally that the royal collection and the Antiquary "thought it was prob- was dispersed after the Civil War. It is, ably presented by Prince Rupert to his therefore, well within the range of proba- cousin, King Charles the First." . . . bilit\that such an historical arm might have This is certainly a more interesting pedigree found its wa\' into the possession of the Scot- than most objects have, and were it not that tish famil\', as noted' b\' Canon Harford.^ the modern investigator has a deep-rooted suspicion of pedigrees, it would be easy to ^A pistol of the same type as the preceding signed "Felix Weerder," occurs in the Stuyve- find in the present case additional indica- sant Collection. See Memorial Catalogue of tions of a ro\al provenance. The qualit\' of Arms and Armor of Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, the object marks it at once as having be- [privately printed, 1914], pi. XLIV, p. 136.
WHEELLOCK PISTOL (dETAIl) SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
44 XX RECENT ACCESSIONS OF ARMS AND ARMOR
GEORGE M. LEFFERTS other certificate relates to a fifteenth-cen- DR.has recently presented to the tury harness designed and executed by Museum his collection of Japan- Hoshi-hiro. Each harness is of high class. ese arms and armor, including One is of the generalissimo type, of gilded twelve complete harnesses, accessories, laminae, corded with scarlet silk; two are swords, and shafted weapons, together corded with purple silk, as in armor of with numerous books of reference. These highest daimyos; and several have helmets were collected by Dr. Lefferts in Kyoto with large ear-pieces and wide and deep and Osaka about twenty years ago, and, on shoulder guards, which serve as marks of his return to this country, were carefully quality. In a number of instances the
& '^ -r t
'A id ^ Si
It I
AN ARMORER S CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY catalogued and exhibited at the Union objects bear inscriptions indicating the part League Club (1893) —the first important of Japan in which they were made and series of these objects, we believe, placed under what daimyos—data particularl\- on view in the United States. The armor important to the student of armor who is mainly of eighteenth-century workman- seeks to follow the changes in design. ship and of excellent design. Two of the Still another suit of Japanese armor has suits, wrought by members of the Miochin lately come to the Museum by the gift of family of artist-armorers, are accompanied Mr. Marshall C. Lefferts. It is of modern by certificates of ancient experts. One of form, dating probably from the first decade these documents, dated 1738, states that of the nineteenth century, and has with it part of the armor belonged to a certain several accessories hitherto unrepresented prime minister; that the casque was made in our gallerw by Miochin Masuda (of the thirty-second Mr. William H. Riggs, of Paris, a former generation of Miochin) of Izumo; the re- trustee and vice president of the Museum, mainder of the suit by (Miochin) Muneyasu has lately enriched the collection with (tenth generation) in the year 1352, The several Oriental arms. These include a
45 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Turkish saber of the seventeenth century, works of the most famous artist-gunsmiths with silver mountings; a Rajput tulwar, of the epoch, among others, Boutet, eighteenth century, ornamented in silver Pirnet, Barzabal, Le Page, Hollandais, and gilt, and a Rajput double-pointed dagger, Lazarino Cominazzo. All are of finished a kind of adargue. workmanship, elaborately decorated, and An important series of fire-arms of the in perfect condition. Man\' are preserved eighteenth century and the first decade of in their original cases and appear rarely the nineteenth has been lent by Mr. to have been discharged. Frederick Sherman Rook. This includes
46 1
XXIII
LOAN EXHIBITION OF ARMS AND ARMOR, 191
HE Museum has arranged to ex- great collections which have been dispersed hibit, during during the past sixty February and years, such as the Mey- TI ^ March of the rick, Londesborough, coming year (191 1), a Spitzer, Zschille, de Cos- collection of arms and son, Hefner-Alteneck, armor selected from the deBelleval, Richards, and cabinets of American Osuna collections. amateurs. It is planned Some of the objects by this means to illus- are of historical import- trate to what degree ance, as the remarkable collectors have succeed- coronation sword of the ed in bringing to this electors of Mayence, and country important exam- parts of a harness which ples of European arms. belonged to Philip 11. Among those whose Others have great artis- collections have been tic merit, as the casque placed at the disposal of from the collection of the Museum are Amory the Due de Luynes. Ex-
S. Carhart, George J, cellent technique is rep- Gould, Edward Hubbard resented in the work of Litchfield, Clarence H. the artist-armorers Col- Mackay, Frank Gair man, Wolf, Seusenhofer, Macomber, Ambrose Missaglia, Negroli. Monell, J.Pierpont Mor- The exhibition will be gan, Howland Pell, T. J. held in Gallery E 11, in Oakley Rhinelander, which the loan collection
Mrs. William Rhinelan- of rugs is at present der, Frederick Sherman shown. The walls will Rook, Cornelius Steven- be hung with earl\' tap- son, Madame Ruther- estries selected to illus- furd Stuyvesant, and trate military costume. Bashford Dean. About thirt>' suits of ar- An illustrated cata- mor are to be displaxed, logue will be published. and of these four will be mounted as equestrian.
The loan exhibition of Halberds, swords, ^ fire- mediaeval arms and ar- arms, and various de- mor already announced, tached pieces of armor bids fair to be of interest will appear in panoplies to general visitors as well CORONATION SWORD FROM THE on the walls of alcoves as to special students of CLARENCE H. MACKAY COLLECTION de\oted to classitied ob- these objects of art. A jects. number of arms will be shown which take According to the plan adopted, the \isi- high rank in their class, representing the tor enters the gallery from I he west door,
47 —
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
and, making a tour of the room, traces the \ears 1450-1530. The armor of later date, development of the subject chronologically representing in general nine tenths of the He first examines objects dating from the specimens usuall\seen, isapttobe decadent, fifteenth century, the earliest period from heavy, and inelegant, sometimes interesting
which mediaeval armor is apt to be pre- only from the decoration which it bears. served (a few specimens onl\' are shown The exhibition would not have been pos- which date from the late fourteenth cen- sible without the generous cooperation of tury). In this section he will find no less nearly all collectors of armor in the United than nine Gothic harnesses. Next, he in- States—not a great number at the most spects a number of Maximilian, or fluted about a score contributing. The total num-
harnesses, which date from 1 500-1 530. He ber of objects will be two hundred. An then turns to a series of armored figures illustrated catalogue will be issued with a dating from 1530- 1630, selected as typical view to providing a better record of the of this period, some enriched by etching, arms and armor in American collections. gilding, and embossing. The general ar-
rangement is sxnoptic, designed for the The loan exhibition of European arms student of this branch of archaeologx', but and armor, which opened on February the objects themselves are selected with sixth, has alread\' been largelx' attended,
especial reference to their merit as objects and it seems to have found favor with of art, in beauty of form, qualitx of work- visitors of widely different interests. Its manship, and enrichment. educational value, for example, in theteach-
Se\eral special groups of arms will attract ing of the history of the Middle Ages, is the attention of the general visitor. Thus, evidentl\' appreciated: classes from the a panopl)' will be arranged showing rare city high schools ha\e attended en masse, Highland arms. Among these a suite of and visits have been paid by schools of backswords will be lent b\' Messrs. Alex- many kinds. It is noticed also that the ander McMillan Welch. Edward Hubbard scholars find much to interest them, since Litchfield, and William B. Osgood Field. the\' remain a long time among the exhibits. The remarkable cla\ more—the primitive The collection has, as was expected, ap- cla\more, double-handed, with downbent pealed to the rather wide circle of art-lovers quillons—of the Earls of Bredalbane will who are interested in mediaeval antiquities, be contributed b>' Madame Rutherfurd who appreciate the quality of the armor Stuyvesant, and a very important dirk, shown, and who realize that an exhibition probablx' dating from the sixteenth centur>', of this kind has never before been viewed b\' Mr. H. G. Keasbey. in this countr\', and ma\' not soon again
An outcome of the present exposition, it is be brought together.
hoped, will be a fuller appreciation of the ar- It is arranged to continue the exhibition mor of earlier periods, let us sa\' between the until .April sixteenth.
48 o^ XXIV
ACCESSIONS IN ARMS AND ARMOR: SWORDS AND A VENETIAN SALADE
O T A - gan's gift the most modern dates about ANBLEgift 1625. It is in Spanish style with a solid, to the De- cup-shaped guard. The latter, however, is
partmen,t certainl\- of Italian workmanship, for it of Arms and Armor bears the signature of Carlo Piccinino, one was latel\' made of the later members of the distinguished b\' our President, famil\- of Milanese armorers and sword-
Mr. J. Pierpont smiths. The hilt is, in fact, the most beau- Morgan. It con- tiful of this t\pe which the writer has seen. sists of five objects It is boldl\- chiseled, showing trophies and obtained b\' him combats, framed as medallions in wreaths
during a visit to of laurel. The chiseling is in high relief, Rome in the spring carried out with remarkable delicacy in
of 191 1 : a North details. The border of the guard, which Italian head-piece expands like a brim, is bent down so as to and four swords, lie close to the margin of the cup, thus form- venetian casque each of these ad- ing a deep crease which served to catch the (barbute) mirabl\' represent- point of an antagonist's rapier. This deep-
xv century ing the art of the creased border is chiseled admirably with a armorer. wreath of laurel held together b\- fillets, The head-piece dates from the end of the a motive seen on other parts of the hilt as fifteenth centur\' and is an example of the well as on the quillons and the branch. deep, close-fitting salade, or barbute, well There also appears a mascaron, in true known in paintings of the period, but rarely North Italian fashion, in the region of the seen in collections. It is of the form per- base of the blade. The latter is of Solingen fected in Milan in the ateliers of the famous workmanship. armorers, Missaglia, whose initial, with the Two of the long rapiers date from the end mark of double proof, occurs in similar speci- of the sixteenth centurx'. One of them is mens. In this regard, however, the pres- Italian, its hilt richly gilded and decorated ent barbute cannot readily be examined, in a st\ le of strap-work and medallions. Its since it is completely inclosed in a casing of pommel is of massive elegance, its design velvet. This form of textile garniture is including a series of four-sided bosses which retained in but few examples of earl\' sa- catch the light at man\' points. The quil- lades. It is usuall\' referred to as Vene- lons are curved, one forward and one back- tian, since it appears in the head-pieces ward, each terminating in a grotesque head. of the doge's guard, where it seems to have The guard is of annular type, a large ring been retained in use for more than a cen- arising from the base of the quillons, and a tur\', in man\' cases furnished with elabo- small ring extending outward from the end rate ornaments in gilded bronze. In the of the pas d'ane. The second sword of this present example, the red velvet garniture is period has a hilt gilded and richly sculp- margined with galloon, and topped with a tured in steel. In its decoration occur crest of gilded bronze, a demi-lion rising many types of grotesque heads, of which from a crown. two with interlacing horns form the central Of the four rapiers included in Mr. Mor- ornament of an oblique guard. Its design
50 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR exhibits the skill of the swordsmith, espec- The fourth sword dates about 1550. The ially in the use of depressed areas, trenches, blade is broad and bears the Toledo mark. and perforations, which give contrasts in The quillons are straight, the guard an- color of great decorative value in the nular, the pommel flattened, large, and scheme of decoration. The blade of this elliptical. The hilt is decorated with sword is of a slightly later date than the hilt; medallions richly gilded, framed by strap- it is probably French and bears the inscrip- work incrusted with silver; its general tion: QVI CON COVES OFFENCERA + MON color appears to have been russet, against MAISTRE OV SA DAME + ME FAVLT DE SON which a parallel series of close-set silver CORPS+SEPARER l'ame. The present chevrons appears in bright relief. From specimen suggests the rapier pictured in its exquisite design and workmanship this Skelton's Meyrick, plate CVI, but is of rapier may well have been borne by a per- richer ornamentation. sonage of the highest rank.
RAPIERS, XVI and XVII CENTURY
5> —
XXV AN ASSYRIAN SWORD
I FT re- especially- since the Phoenician form is the AGceived late- more highl\' specialized, a condition which 1\- from Mr. could ha\e been predicted from the time
J. Pierpont relations of the kindred peoples, Ass\ rian -Morgan, isanAss\ r- and Phoenician. It was excellently ian sword of rare in- planned as a' chopping sword, and could
terest. It is, in fact, have been used formidabl\' with a short
the only specimen forearm stroke. Its workmanship is ex- of its kind, the pri- cellent, as in the quality of the surfaces, mitive bronze Sa- in the grooving, in the precise and gradu- pa-ra, of which the ated margins of the handle, in the regularly writer has been able and boldl\' executed cuneiform characters, to find any record, above all, in the grace of design of the
although its t\pe is little incised ornaments (resting antelopes) well known in As- which appear on the sides of the blade. ANTELOPE syrian monuments, The characters have been read and each DETAIL FROM THE notabl\- c\iinders. of the three inscriptions is the same; the ASSYRIAN SWORD on which the god first, on the left side of the blade, the second
Maruduk is shown on the right side of the base of the blade, fighting with a dragon. The present sword and the third, on the back of the blade, is well known to archaeologists and was long read: "The Palace of Vul-niari, King of exhibited in the Assxrian galler\' of the Nations, son of Budil, King of Assyria, son British Museum. It has several times been of Belnirai, King of Assyria." The sword figured, as in Burton's Book of the Sword, is thus important as an historical docu- p. 208, or in the Transactions of the Societ\' ment, giving as it does the names and of Biblical Archaeology, \ol. 1\', p. 347. relationships of three Assyrian rulers who It was obtained about 1875 by an English reigned during the fourteenth century B. C. explorer. Colonel Hanburs', at Nardin, in the capital of Assur (Kelch Shergat), where it had been in the possession of a region from which it was obtained.
Arabs. Nothing is known of its earlier The sword was believed by Mr. Bos- history. cawen, who first called attention to it,
Among bronze swords it merits high rank to be a temple piece, and "probably in beaut}' of workmanship; the blade is placed in the hands of a statue, perhaps slender, single-edged, and its outline is one of the god Maruduk." But we are gracefull\' rounded down (forward) from convinced that the sword was not a mere the produced straight tang; its surface is decorative piece, for its accurate balance, delicatel\' curved from back to edge. In its rounded surfaces and corners, and its form and in size— it is twenty inches long careful finish all speak in favor of its hav- the sword suggests the bolo of the Malayan ing been used, and b\' one to whom the peoples, a case of evolutional convergence, artistic finish of the arm was second in doubtless, but a curiouslx' complete one, importance to its actual value in battle. even to the balance of the blade and the Its hilt originally contained on either form of the handle. On the other hand, its side a plate of some material, possiblx' similarit\' to the Phoenician short sword hard wood, metal, or ivory, which formed is less apt to prove a case of parallelism, the sides of the grip, these held in place by
52 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR inbent margins of the metal. There is was then referred to as of decorative interest no evidence of the "richly jeweled hilt" merely, is, according to Dr. Frothingham, of which Mr, Boscawen writes—but to whose interest we are indebted for the without this the sword is easily an object foregoing corrections, a "divine symbol of highest rank. set upon a standard (or an altar) such as one sees on the Babylonian boundary The early bronze sword, presented to the stones, where animals connected with altars
Museum by its President, Mr. J. Pierpont are emblems of various gods of the Pan-
ASSYRIAN SWORD, XIV CENTURY B. C.
Morgan, and described in the January theon. . . . Here it is probably the number of the Museum Bulletin, has emblem of the god Raman, which lies at lately received the attention of several the basis of the king's name and whose Assyriologists, who have commented on its protecting deity he was." In confirmation value, both from historical and palaeo- of this note one recalls the use of similar graphical standpoints. The Museum is symbols, e. g., gazelle, ox, rat, tiger, pea- greatly indebted to Professors Prince, cock, in the religion of India at the present Frothingham, Clay, and Vanderburg, time. One notes, also, that the antelope who have contributed a more modern is apparently resting upon an altar, from
:^'l*r%w^,WC~r,;3^
?Hifflass<-iJe33««:<*>-^>**-Vf<«>;*-^ ^W^''
r. ...m ,
ASSYRIAN SWORD SHOWING INSCRIPTION rendering of the cuneiform inscription. It the corners of which ornaments (tassels?) reads: are hanging. In another matter, Mr. E-kal—Adad-Nirari sar Kissati apal Pu- George S. Stone, whose knowledge of the di-ili sar mat As-sur apal ilu Bel-Nirari sar arms of the Near East is frequently called mat As-sur-ma. upon by the Curator, has commented upon the close similarity of the handle of this ("The palace of Adad [or Raman] Nirari Assyrian weapon to that of the modern king of hosts, son of Pudi-ilu king of Afghan sword, a similarity which, for a Assyria, son of Bel-Nirari king of Assyria.") number of reasons. ma\' not be due to con-
[Adad-Nirari I reigned circa 1325 B. C] vergence.
I n the former notice Kelch Shergat should have read Kalch Shergat, Nardin should The following poem and introductory have read Mardin. The antelope which note, printed in Punch, Ma\ i, 1S75, refer
53 —
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART to the Assyrian sword presented to the Still CAIN and TUBAL CAIN—.-/roafcs ambo!— Museum by .Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan and Stir up and arm for strife man's murderous described in the Bulletin, vol. \ IL p. 3. passion. "Another Antique which attracted con- As they did ere the mighty QUEEN SALAMBO siderable attention was an Ass>rian Sci- Led Carthaginian fashion. While bards \^ill sing of war and war-drum's metar in bronze. . . . The inscription rattle. this fine weaf)on to the reign of assigns TVRTAEUS, TENNYSON, old HOMER, X'UL-MR-ARI (? X'ulnerare) I., thus giv- BYRON,
" ing it the incredible age of thirty-three "Sweetness and light make but a sony battle With "Blood and Iron." centuries. It is probabl\ the oldest dated Great \ UL-NIRARI and his \'ulcan clever in the world." Times Report of sword — Each on Times Tablet hath engraven his mark; Mr. George Smith's lecture at the Royal Sav \i-ill such posthumous glor\- wait for ever Institution. On KRUPPand BISMARCK? When thrice ten centuries again have flown (If CLIFFORD S climax spare the world so
.\nother relic from the great Bronze Age! long I, Lethal this time in lieu of culinarx; Will War and "Wooluich Infants'" then be Fierce warfare doubtless did its wielder wage known Neath \ UL-N1R.ARI. As themes for song? If Mans first worldly lesson was to feed. Or if some ninetieth centur>' SMITH should To fight must certainly have been his second. light on Some rude device to make a brother bleed \ buried blade, of British make and metal, Is rightly reckoned .\midst the dust of— Dorking, say, or Brighton, Among his first inventions. Ever>' land .And strive to settle Hives in its dust-heaps proof more plain than Its date and purpose, will the world around print Be then .Arcadian, or still a garrison? How soon man armed his homicidal hand .\nd ^*ill contemporar>' blades abound With shard or flint. To court comparison?
But heres a choice antique which clearly shows .Alas I this sword that has survived so much That when this dainty death-dealer was dated. Has not outlived its function: much sad histor>' The art of matly slaughtering ones foes .May yet be written ere another such Was cultivated. Shall seem a myster>- Since this most ancient bit of bronze was new To man unmilitant. The sword-smith's trade Three thousand years have passed—so SMITH Still lives, nay, gathers ghastlier glories round it. explaineth Though ages part the smith, who forged ibis The men it ser\ed are dead as those it slew. blade. The sword remaineth. From S.MITH, who found it.
54 —
XXVI
ARMOR WORN IN AMERICA
A RMOR worn, worn for service, in of adventurers, routed hostile armies.
/\ America!— I don't believe it" That horse-armor was then used, and /"^ this from a distinguished visitor largely used, is incontrovertible, and -^ *- who stood in front of one of the the condition of panic caused among cases in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. the Indians by the invulnerableness of Why, my dear fellow, we never had these the Spaniard cannot be given too much
JEFFERY, FIRST LORD AMHERST, FROM THE PAINTING BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS mediaeval people in our country." But the weight in the study of the conquest. fact is, none the less, that we did wear With armored horses the invaders rode armor not infrequently in the early days, down masses of natives, and the inven- and that, in some instances at least, the tion of the stirrup of the couqiiisiadores, armor was richly wrought and decorated of which a beautiful example is shown in —of a type pointed out in one of the the Museum, is said to have had its grim Museum cases. use in such a struggle. It was a stirrup It was, of course, only in the earliest of great weight with wide flanges at the colonial times that armor was worn sides and base, and the horseman could regularly. In the Spanish colonies it was swing it fatally as ho galloped through in constant service during the sixteenth crowded squares. This type of stirrup and seventeenth centuries. Indeed, it survived in a decadent form until the was due to their complete panopl\' that early nineteenth centur\-: its projecting Pizarro and Cortez, with their handful flanges were retained onl\ as space for
55 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART decoration, and it is more than probable only were the head-piece and corselet that those who later rode with such a borne in the procession, but the arm stirrup knew little of its reputed use. pieces, gauntlets, hip guards, even the round shield. At the close of the Common- wealth many of the Cromwellians who left the home-countr\- probably brought " with them their arms. Of this period, or slightly later, is the portrait of Governor Fitz-John Winthrop in half-armor, and his suit is said to be preserved "somewhere in New England." The regicides who came to Connecticut could hardly have
come unarmed, and it is more than likel\' that they found the local militia in pre- cisel\' the same gear as in England. Of this time was probably the "skeleton in armor" which Longfellow pictures, with fantastic license, as a viking. Armorers, even, were not lacking. Corselets and head-pieces were wrought in Connecticut (Hartford), but they were probably of little interest from the point of view of the armorer's art. Buff-coats were worn, and one of these, which appears STIRRUP OF CONQUISTADOR to have belonged to Gov. Dudley, is preserved in the Hancock-Clarke house
Among the French in Canada armor in Lexington. It is a beautiful example appears to have been in frequent use. of its period.
Champlain sketched himself in half- The fact is that during the late seven- armor—a drawing which has given accu- rate data in costume and arms to the present commission intrusted with erect- ing a monument to Champlain at Platts- burg. In the English colonics elaborate equip- ments were early worn. Portraits show that John Smith and Raleigh unquestion- ably appeared in enriched armor. Many corselets and head-pieces crossed the sea about the time of the Indian wars. The redoubtable Captain Underbill wore half- armor and he records that on one occa- sion his head-piece saved him from an arrow which struck him near the forehead. Early town records show presents of corselets and casques—thus, Plymouth received a gift of a score of corselets in GORGET OF CAPTAIN FANNING 1635. Sometimes an almost complete AMERICAN REVOLUTION harness is recorded. The late Mr. Robert Sterling Blair, who had studied military teenth century armor was still in quite affairs in the colonies, called the writer's general use in all American colonies attention to the details of a funeral of a and, here as abroad, was worn by the governor of Massachusetts at which not highest officers as a part, and a very
56 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR decorative part, of their ceremonial dress. bossed with lion heads in ancient Polish Among those who are pictured in armor style. Rochambeau, too, probably brought are Penn, Stuyvesant, Andros, Keith, with him his siege armor; we learn, for ex- Fairfax, and Nathaniel Johnson. ample, that he is described by Joel Barlow During the eighteenth century armor as "in gleaming steel arrayed." Paul still appears in colonial portraits, but it is Jones, according to his Scotch friend, rare—as in the portraits of Oglethorpe, Hyslop, wore a corselet under his coat Stringer Lawrence, or Lord Amherst. in his fight with the Serapis, a relic which The last-named wears half-armor with Jones afterward gave to the Hyslop family. long tassets as late as 1760, and has a It is now exhibited in the Riggs armor head-piece with a movable nasal; he is thus gallery. The last rudiment of armor was
PORTRAIT OF GOVERNOR PETER STUYVESANT
ARMOR OF 1 650- 1 660 pictured in the region of Ticonderoga by the gorget plate which was worn through- Sir Joshua Reynolds. out the Revolution as a regimental orna-
Thus, armor remained in vogue longer ment. 1 1 is clearly the survivor of the wide than is generally known. Even during the guard, or colletin, which covered the
American Revolution it appears sporadi- neck and upper chest, and was overlapped cally. Kosciuszko, when he came to this by the rim of the corselet. The rev- country, may have brought his armor olutionary gorget, which was small, usually with him, for he appears fully armed in a decorated, and bore the number of the portrait dating from the end of the century; regiment, hung from the neck b\' a cord even his arm defenses are here complete or ribbon, as it appears, for example, in and his shoulder guards arc elaborately cm- an early portrait of Washington.
57 XX\I1
THE GAUNTLETS OF THE EARL OF SUSSEX (1583)
R. CLARENCE H. .\L\CKAV tion, parcel-gilt, richl\- etched in bands, recentl\ presented to the Mu- longitudinal and transverse, and show an seum a pair of gauntlets, beau- intricate pattern in ornament which makes M tifulh designed, which have it possible to compare them in detail with the gauntlets shown in a drawing in the ancient armorers' sketch-book now in South Kensington .Museum. The draw-
ing of the Sussex Harness is here repro- duced from the lithograph given in Lord Dillon's admirable work. An Almain Armourers' .Album ^1905). Lord Dillon states in his text, "The gauntlets of this suit were sold in 1895 ^t the Spitzer Sale .," . . although at the time their iden- tity was not known. On their artistic merit the\ brought a high price (for that time) at the sale, having been "pushed" by -Mr. W. H. R., the well-known collector. They were adjudged, however, to a dealer in Paris from whom the\ were purchased b\ -Mr. Mackay. Closer study of the gauntlet and the early drawing brings out some discrepant details which at first make one hesitate to accept the identification given b\' Lord Dillon. Thus, the number of the lames of metal covering the back of the hand are but three in the drawing and six in the actual object; also, there are slight differ- ences in the details of the knuckle plate and in the proportions and treatment of the etched bands. On the other hand, the pattern of ornament is unique and SUSSEX HARNESS elaborate " the workmanship is clearl\ of the Eng- FROM A DRAWING IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM lish type." Concluding, therefore, that the gauntlets came from the Greenwich been identified as having belonged to an workshop, it is hardlv probable that they historical personage. The gauntlets, it belonged to another harness of the same appears, were made in the English royal intricate design and workmanship which atelier (Greenwich), probabl> about 1570, is not accounted for in the govern- for Thomas Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, mental album, and the slight discrepancies prominent in the court of Elizabeth. He are therefore best explained on the suppo- was at various times Lieutenant General sition that the drawing was made before of the North, Lord Deput\ of Ireland, and the Sussex harness was prepared, and .Ambassador to Spain and to the Emperor. that the armorer "improved," in certain The gauntlets are in excellent preserva- details, upon the "fashion plate" which
58 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR he prepared or which was presented him We conclude, accordingly, in the case of as a working guide. This conclusion is our gauntlets, that Lord Dillon's identifica- greatly strengthened when we compare in a tion is well founded. similar way pieces of armor of known Authentic armor of any kind is now rare, provenance with the Greenwich sketches armor of artistic excellence is rarer, and given in the ancient album. Thus, the armor of artistic excellence and of his- suit of Sir John Smith at Windsor has a torical provenance is rarest and most
-'S'^^^SsSw*,
GAUNTLET OF THE EARL OF SUSSEX greater number of lames in the upper leg interesting of all. So we may well be defenses than the drawing shows, also grateful for the gift of the present gaunt- differences in the face-guard and throat- lets. During the coming months they will plates. In Sir Christopher Hatton's suit be exhibited with the harness of Sir James in the King's Collection, the differences Scudamore, acquired b>' the Museum in are quite conspicuous, and they are present 191 1. In fact, it was due to Mr. Mackay's also, but to a less degree, in the Scudamore appreciation of the fact that the work- harness, which had been retained until manship of these harnesses and of the pres- lately in the family of Sir James, and was ent objects was identical that he at once even preserved in the house where he lived. added them to our collection.
5^) XXVIII A LOAN COLLECTION OF JAPANESE SWORD-GUARDS
Museum has recentl\- bor- and seventeenth centuries. The works THErowed from Mr. Howard Mans- of this famil\', or school, rank among Ja- field a collection of eighty-six panese critics as models of pure and dig- sword-guards which represent nified taste. One of the most noteworthy admirably a highly developed branch of examples here shown is Mr. Mansfield's Japanese art. The guards, which date guard of Kanei\e II which, on the face, from the fourteenth centurx" to the end of represents a fisherman punting his skiff
SWORD-GUARD BY KANEIYE NI-DAI, ABOUT 160O FRO.M THE HOWARD MANSFIELD COLLECTION
the Shogunate, are now arranged in a against a strong current, and, above the special case and are exhibited near the fisherman, one notes lofty mountain tops; west entrance of the Hall of Japanese on the reverse is a temple on the ledge of a Armor. On one side of the case appear high mountain; below, the mist gathers, guards of the decorated t\'pe, including and over all shines the full moon. The only specimens in various metals—iron, sha- specimens in this case not belonging to the kudo, shibuichi, copper, brass, silver, and Mansfield Collection are two guards of tinted bronzes—enriched in many instances Kaneiye I and one guard of Kaneiye by incrustations in silver and gold. On the HI, which were presented to the Museum other side of the case are exhibited sword- several years ago by a distinguished guards of iron, beloved by Japanese of the Japanese amateur of Kyoto, Masaiiji older school, representing the greatest Goda. efforts of the earlier artists. Preeminent The present collection well merits the among these are guards of the family of attention of lovers of Oriental art, since it Kaneiye, which flourished in the sixteenth represents the expression of artists in a 60 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR field which for more than a thousand years work of artists in various fields, just as, in has been given special consideration by the case of European arms, the greatest the nobles of Japan. The sword was, as painters and engravers furnished the design leyasu said, " the living soul " of the for the technical work. In this regard one samurai, and its embellishment was found notes a tsuba of Natsuo ( 1 828-1 898) . This, deserving of the serious efforts of the great- as the inscription tells us, was the product est artists. The makers of tsuba were not of this last of the great masters in the art merely metalsmiths, but designers as well. working in cooperation with his friend, In instances, moreover, tsuba were the Soju, the painter.
61 XXIX
A COLLECTION OF ARMORERS' IMPLEMENTS
1 VERY collection of ancient armor work, repairing, restoring, and cop\ing requires technical care for its armor for collectors. He made restorations upkeep. The objects must be for M. Carrand (pere), the foremost ama- E kept free from rust and occas- teur in armor of that time, who was, b\' the ionally remounted; from time to time res- wa\', the preceptor of the American archae- torations have to be made. In the carr\- ologist, Mr. William H. R lowers Klein ing out of this work the Museum has worked also for M, Just, the Baron de arranged a small shop Cosson, the Due de in which technical Dino, the Marquis de operations ma\' be Belleval,and M.Spit-
carried on; and it has zer. The present already proved its series of armorers'
value when the armor implements is known which was secured to have come in nu- from the Earl of Ches- merous cases from terfield was put in Klein's master, whose order. In this con- apprenticeship dated nection we note the from the end of the purchase of a collec- eighteenth centur\-, tion of armorers' im- when some of the im- plements which be- plements appear to longed to Daniel have been old. Even
Tachaux, one of the if there were no other few surviving artist- record, the present armorers. Mr. Ta- objects would demon- chaux brought his strate a high speciali- ouiillage to this coun- zationof thetechnical try when he came WORKSHOP OF LLDWIG KLEIN side of the armorer's from Paris in 1909 to BOULEVARD JOURDAN, PARIS, 1875 art. Curious anvils make some repairs in ("stakes") are pre- the Museum collection of armor. His out- sent which were used only in the mak- fit consists of over six hundred numbers, ing of the combs of helmets, or in the and includes nearl\- a hundred kinds of complicated operation of forming borders, anvils and a great variety of hammers. and in embossing objects of large size. Part of the collection was formerly the The implements give, in a word, no little propertN' of Ludwig Klein (1825-18^^2), an light upon a field which has been curi- Alsatian armorer, who settled in Paris in ously neglected — the ancient manner of the early fifties and was employed by the making armor—and with the collection Emperor's order, repairing and mounting we have now the names for various im- harnesses for the Castle of Pierrefonds, and plements which are almost as extinct later for the Musee d'Artillerie. It was as the armorer's art. It is hoped that there that his pupil, Le Bon, later became a catalogue raisonne of the collection armorer. Klein's atelier was at first in the will be prepared in which the objects Rue St. Martin; there, and later in a shop will be illustrated and their uses ex- on the Boulevard Jourdan, he carried on his plained. 62 XXX
THE ARMOR OF SIR JAMES SCUDAMORE
Museum added to its collec- armory of Greenwich —now preserved in
THEtion in 191 1 two incomplete South Kensington Museum. suits of Elizabethan armor, decor- It is rare in these days to discover armor ated in bands engraved and which belonged to definite personages,
partly gilded, which came from an English hence it may not be out of place to review manor-house. Holme Lacy, in Hereford- as best we may the history of the present shire. This was the pieces. Probable it ancient seat of the is that they never family of Scuda- strayed far from the more - Stanhope, homeof their owner. now represented by They may originally the Earl of Chester- have been mounted field, and here the on racks or mani- armor had remained kins after the pre- since the time when vailing fashion and
it was borne by Sir dismembered when James Scudamore. Holme Lacy was re- Sir James, it may modeled, toward the be mentioned, was end of the seven- well known in his teenth centurv, at day as gentleman which time proba- usher at the Court bly some of the most of Elizabeth, and a decorative pieces personage of suffi- were hung about the cient prominence to house. In fact, we warrant Spenser's know that they were referring to him in displayed separate- the Faerie Queene. ly, for when the He was a man of armor was examined means and we may old wires were found safely assume that in place by means of his panoply for tour- which pieces had naments and court been attached to ceremonies was pre- pegs or brackets. FIG. I. CHESTERFIELD ARMOR pared by the best Later on, the pieces FROM A DRAWING artist-armorers. He were taken down, IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM is pictured in one of some were lost, the the suits in a full- rest stored and for- length portrait in the possession of the gotten. It was only in 1909, that all
present Lord Chesterfield (fig. 4), and he parts that remained of the armor reap- appears in the second suit under the name peared when the contents of the ancient of Mr. Skidmuer, in a contemporary color- manor-house were overhauled for public
ed drawing (fig. i), in the celebrated ar- sale. They were discovered by a London morers 'pattern-book—believed on weighty antiquary, who had been asked b\' Lord grounds to have belonged to the royal Chesterfield to visit Holme Lacv and ex- 63 THE METROPOLITAN MLSELM OF ART
pertise the art objects, and it is he, Mr. upset price of onl\ twent\' pounds. And Henry Lenygon, who, happening to visit in the catalogue of the sale the lot was the MetropoHtan Museum, has kindl\' given described in but a few words. Apparently' the following details, as to where and how none of the auctioneers or their advisers the armor was found: realized the importance of their find. On "It appears that when Holme Lacy was the other hand, collectors and special an- rebuilt in the reign of Charles II. a part of tiquity merchants were not long in finding the older building remained untouched, out that the armor was of the best quality, the 'Henry Mil tower,' and in the attic of historical interest, and of great pecuni- man\' objects had been stored awa\' for ary value. One of these merchants, accord- generations: here were found large decora- ingl\', seeking a profitable bargain, took tive paintings, wood carvings from mantels prompt measures to obtain the armor
and cornices, and stacks of Tudor doors. before it could be sold publicly; he visited the owner, made certain statements, and upon paxment of a considerable sum was given an order to withdraw the lot from the sale. This procedure, as one might have prophesied, caused comment; several who came to the auction declared publicly that the> would have given a much higher price than the owner had obtained. Fur-
thermore, it was said that the London purchaser was holding the armor at a ver\' high price. These things, in due course, came to the attention of the former owner, who was led to declare that he had been persuaded to sell under unfair representa- tion and that he would take means to re-
cover his properts . Then followed a lawsuit which ended in a verdict that the armor should be returned to Lord Chester- field. It was soon after this that the Mu- •seum secured the objects privately at the
instance of its President, J. Pierpont Morgan. The armor purchased represented, as FIG. 2. HELMET OF SIR J.A.MES SCLD.\.MORE above noted, parts of two harnesses. Of one suit the head-piece was lacking, of Under a litter of odds and ends la\ a long the other the corselet; in both several
chest and in this the armor was 1> ing in a plates were missing, as well as the gaunt- confused mass. Nearb>- was a low win- lets. .And one who did not know armor dow through which the rain had entered might well have been disappointed at the at various times, for the floor had rotted condition of the pieces when the\ came to
and the bottom of the chest had evidentl\- the Museum; the\ were rust\ , detached, been damp." This was clearly not the broken, and special technical skill was re- best storage place for armor, and one little quired to put them in proper order. For- wonders that some of the pieces had been tunately the Museum armorer, Daniel greatly injured, especially at the points Tachaux, was at hand to undertake the where they came in contact with the damp work and the results have been excellent. wood. In fact, at all points the armor .At first it was thought that the suit had was sadly rusted, and evidently the first originally been given a russet color over view of the chestful of fragments was not its bright areas, after the fashion of a exciting, for the visitor placed upon it an number of later harnesses, but a more 64 FIG. 3. ARMOR OF SIR JAMES SCUDAMORE AS EXHIBITED IN I913 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART careful examination of the pieces showed is painfull}' meager which connects the that the armor was primitivel\' white, Innsbruck armorer with the Greenwich almost silver-like in its brilliant polish. workshop, and we may even be skeptical This became clear when the helmet was whether the inscription in the album on taken apart and when various plates of the Lee and Worcester suits, "Thes peces arms and legs were unriveted, for here wer made b\' me Jacobe," refers to Jacob appeared the primitive surface, mirrorlike, Topf; it ma\" rather be the remark of an retained for over three centuries fresh from English armorer whose family name the hand of the armorer. This ma\' be Jacob. Jacobe, or Jacobx', was not at all seen, for example, at points on the elbow an uncommon one. The latter view is the guard pictured, enlarged, in fig. 5. more probable when we consider that The restoration of the Chesterfield armor Topf was working from the year 157s and was of necessity a laborious task. The thereafter, not in Greenwich but in Inns- etched surfaces were carefully cleaned and bruck, and we are sure that some, if not the rust removed by brushing and b\- the man\- of the "Topf" harnesses, were made aid of a delicate burnisher, this following after 1575: thus, Hatton's suit is dated treatment with oils and ammonia. Each 1585. and Leicester's is of similar date. tracer\ in the pattern, it was found, had to Moreover, it ma\' be borne in mind that be cleaned separatelx'. Then the rusted the known work of Topf in the Vienna surfaces were polished and the missing Museum does not agree satisfactoril\' with plates added, etched and gilded. In all the work of these English harnesses. The cases, however, where a missing fragment present writer has come to the conclusion, was replaced care was taken to engrave therefore, that further examination of the upon the surface of the plate the date of English records will show that a school of the restoration and the signature of the English armorers had arisen in the royal maker. .And these restorations will also armor-ateliers, as a result of grafting sev- be noted in the descriptive label. For eral generations of armorers of various temporarx exhibition parts of the two suits nationalities, mainl\' German, upon an have been associated, fig. 3. English stock, and that alread\- features As to where and when the present har- had appeared in this English armor to dis- nesses were made. They are of cIosei\- tinguish it from Continental armor. Lord similar workmanship, and there can be Dillon objects that these harnesses could little doubt that the\- were produced in not be English since certain parts of them, the same place. .And we have evidence e. g.. the braxelte, were not worn in Eng- that one of them was made in the ro>"al land at that time. But it might be equally atelier at Greenwich, for it is figured in the well maintained that these pieces were ancient pattern-book (see Lord Dillon's rarel> , if ever, worn in other countries at .Mmain Armourers' .Album, 1905, W. this date, and they were merel\- "rudimen- Griggs, London). The artist who pre- tar\' organs," as the evolutionist would say, pared it is currently given as Jacob Topf persisting in the full panoplx' of a ^rand a well-known armorer who seipieur. .And it is clear to us that the ( 1 530-1 597), worked especially at Innsbruck for the present Scudamore harnesses are English Austrian Court. The armor, on this as- harnesses, and that they have distinct sumption, would be German or .Austrian, family likeness to the other suits known to made in England by a visiting armorer. have been produced in Greenwich. Thus, This, in a word, is the present verdict of we have onI\ to compare the shape and set the most competent English authorities. of the heavy head-piece, with its peculiar The\- do not believe, furthermore, that apertures and clasps; the massive shoulders their countr\- was producing skilful armor- with embossed eminences which cover the ers in Elizabethan times, but depended metal shoulder-clasps of the corselet; the upon Almain and other imported artists elbow and knee guards with their shell for their best harnesses. It must be ad- which attaches in a separate piece; pecul- mitted, on the other hand, that the evidence iarities in hinges and fastenings—and in 66 FIG. 4. PORTRAIT OF SIR JAMES SCUDAMORE REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD THE METROPOLITAN MUSE CM OF ART general a certain "heaviness" in form, ples) appear to have survived, and of these large-jointed, and loose-fitting, all in the all are more or less incomplete. The only substantial, honest, "comfortable" work harnesses more complete than the Scuda- which marks the English artist-artisan. more ones are those of the Earl of Wor- It may be worthv of note, finall\, that cester (the Tower of London), Sir John the present harnesses, defective as the\ are, Smith Tthe Tower), Sir Christopher Hatton form an appreciable fraction of known (Windsor), the Earl of Pembroke (Wilton Elizabethan harnesses of their class. The House), Sir Harr>' Lee (Armourers' Com- Greenwich album figures twent>-nine suits, pany in London), and Lord Buckhurst and onh' ten '.including the present exam- -Wallace Collection).
FIG. 5. P.ART OF ELBOW GLARD SHOWING .AT POINTS THE ORIGINAL SURFACE
68 XXXI
A SWORD-GUARD
BY THE JAPANESE ARTIST KANEIYE SHO-DAI
tsuba or sabre guard appeals really good sword-guard is for sale, it is THEin a peculiar way to the lover of apt to be taken immediately by a local Japanese art, perhaps in part personage; for he it is who will pay the
because it touches Japanese price for it, and not the foreign buyers, and
manners and mind, history and religion it is he, therefore, who is always given the more intimately and more attractively first choice by merchants from one end of than any other type of object with which the country to the other. In a real Japan- one is apt to come in contact. The foreign ese collection common sword-guards have collector soon learns, in fact, when he visits no place: they are cast aside everywhere, Japanese friends that the trayful of sword- and can sometimes be bought almost by guards which is placed on the mat before the pound: in a single dognia the writer him even gives an insight into the position recalls seeing several hundred guards, and refinement of the family which pos- including a number quite ornate, which sessed them. This may seem to him in could be purchased for about a penny the beginning somewhat of a paradox apiece.
since he is told that sword-guards were It is difficult to appreciate the love for a ever regarded as transitory things—orna- beautiful sword-guard which was felt by a ments which were often changed, the mere samurai of the old school. Its form de- decor of the sword-blade which alone was lighted him and its color; its patine soothed to be kept forever as the symbol of family him, and he touched its soft surface con- honor. But he presently discovers that stantly and gently. Perhaps its design the little groups of sword-guards which are suggested some deed of Japanese chivalry shown him in private hands include the which made this guard a fitting setting specimens which were ordered by mem- for an historic blade. Naturally, there- bers of a friend's family directly from the fore, samurai, who represented a large and tsuba artists, and, artistically considered, influential class, patronized the makers had withstood the fire of criticism of of tsuba, and from this general patronage various members of the family during arose and flourished schools of artists, some several, sometimes many generations. of whose names persisted for centuries, It may be safely said that sword-guards some but for two or three generations, each examined in private collections in foreign distinctive, however, and producing ob- countries are by no means the sword- jects which form in themselves an attrac- guards which one sees in Japan, under tive theme for study— a theme no less similar conditions. The Japanese collec- attractive, perhaps, because involved and tors who envelop their tsuba in soft old difficult. Indeed, it would be quite un- brocade, and tuck them away in exquisite wise for anyone to attempt to understand lacquered cases, have usually but few ex- the sword-guards of Japan from the view- amples, perhaps not more than a dozen point of many schools and many makers, as in all, but each is of delightful quality and one is often tempted to do when living out- represents fairly the pick of picked speci- side of Japan; 'tis puzzling enough in tsuba mens. The Japanese connoisseur is not to study a single problem intensiveh'. the man to allow an important guard to Nothing, in fact, has given the present find its way into trade. In fact, when a writer a better insight into the difficulties 69 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART which beset a student of Japanese art guard is a Kaneiye guard onl\- when, like
(for from one case of this kind we ma\- Mr. Mansfield's guard, it possesses the defi- learn all) than his experience while in nite characteristics and traditions of one of Japan, collecting and stud\'ing the work the members of this great familw In fact, of a single famil\- of sword-guard artists, it need not be signed, for in man\- if not in trying by the method of comparison to all cases the signatures are of considerably distinguish among all available specimens later date than the guard. Thus, given a the good tsuba from the bad. To this large collection of guards bearing the classi- particular stud\' he had been led by seeing cal signature (e. g., the writer's collection in New "^'ork, in the Mansfield Collection, which includes about three hundred num- an iron guard bers), a Japanese which seemed to expert would e m b o d > m a n >' select at the most distinctive fea- but one or two tures of Japanese guards as authen- art. This tsuba tic work of the was of iron, sim- Kanei\e. .Ml the ple, with a beau- others would be t i f u 1 brown considered more patine: it was ex- or less ancient ecuted in low copies or counter- sculptured relief, feits. and pictured ad- The reason of mirably a night I his is not far to scene. Below the seek. It appears mountains, as that the Kaneive though in faint artists were men mist, a boatman of great renown was pushing his in their da\', and skiff. Hisface their work passed was of siher, and into the hands it shone in the o n 1 > o f d i s t i n- light of the moon. guished person- Now the art of ages and connois- the guard la\- in SWORD-GUARD (oBVERSE) B^- KANElVE SHO-DAI seurs. On this this, that the account, in part, man seemed living, executed boldlv though their tsuba were especially coveted far and crudely, apparentlx' b\' but a few strokes: wide. Hence numerous copies were made in it was clear that he bore his weight heavil\- various parts of Japan and by artists of on his pole, that the figure was tense, rigid, many grades of merit. And it is these re- \et moving, and that the boat itself rose plicas or variants. naturall\', which one finds buo\antl\' from the water. Even at first toda\' in commerce. So far as the histor\- view, this guard made a deep impression, of the Kaneiye goes, early records are vague. as it was clearl\' the work of a master, and In general, however, the work is known of his name, according to the signature, was a three "generations" of their name. The certain Kaneiye who lived in Fushimi in first generation appears to have flourished Vamashiro. during the last quarter of the sixteenth Now in general, in foreign countries, a centurx'—some experts sa\' much earlier, Kaneixe guard is a Kane'i\e guard, for even a centurw The second generation better or for worse, and the collector is apt dates roundl\- from 1600 to 1650, and the to place it in his series and catalogue it as third generation from the middle to the end the work of the artist whose name it bears. of the seventeenth centur\'. In Japan, on the other hand, a Kaneixe The great number of the "Kaneiye NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR tsuba" are clearly of eighteenth-century with great artistic judgment. A single workmanship. In a general way, the first bird, and a small one at that, and a single generation (Sho-dai) executed iron guards spray of leaves, were all that this master occasionally with four marginal indenta- was apt to use in a composition. tions (mokko form) and decorated with per- We may note that experts differ as to sonages. Of the latter, the faces, arms, the details which distinguish the work of and ornaments are apt to be executed in the generations of these artists. It is gen- precious metals, while other parts of the erally admitted, though, that the signa- figures are sculptured out of the substance tures which the tsuba bear have little or of the guard, and in sharp relief, i. e., they no significance: they are generally of later donot" round" date than the into the back- guard, and are ground, and the more or less de- sculpturing is tailed, depend- simple, with a ing upon the suspicion of connoisseu r- Chinese work- ship of some manship, and early owner. singularly effec- We need tive . The hardly add that themes are clas- authentic sical, often reli- works of any of gious or histori- the generations cal, usually of Kaneiye are treated naively rarely to be and nearly al- seen. Foreign ways so as to museums usu- suggest dark- ally exhibit ness and mys- copies for ori- t e r y . The ginals and give second gener- a very indiffer- ation of Ka- ent impression neiye (Ni-dai) of the skill of produced these artists. guards of some- SWORD-GUARD (rEVERSe) BY KANEIYE SHO-DAI Few of their what flatter tsuba, in fact, relief, of better metal, always thin in the seem to have found their way out of region where the guard is pierced by the Japan. By good fortune, in 1906, The sword-blade and typically finished along the Metropolitan Museum of Art came into border with an irregular line, sharply mar- the possession of three Kaneiye guards, of gined, which simulates a folding over of the which two were the work of the first gen- metal. The themes, drawn from folk-lore, eration and one of the third—these, the poetry, and philosophy, are delicately gift of a veteran Japanese collector, Mr. modeled, usually in low, flattish relief, and Masaiiji Godaof Kyoto (see Bulletin, vol. are always developed with masterly simplic- I, no. 5). And onl\' recentl\' the Museum ity. By Japanese experts the work of the has secured its fourth example. This had second generation is considered the best. belonged to the late Dr. Edouard Mene of Kaneiye Third (San-dai) prepared guards Paris, the widely known collector, and was which were disk-shaped and somewhat purchased at public sale: it had several heavy, of iron of the best quality, taking times been figured in works on Japanese usually a satin-like patine: his favorite art, and was the most highly esteemed themes were birds and plants, especiall\' among the thousands of sword-guards in bamboo, treated in low relief simply, but the Mene Collection. It had been as-
7' THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART cribed to Kaneiye the Second, but the in bold relief, archaic in modeling with writer believes that, according to the cri- details skilfully suggested, as in the head- teria of Japanese experts, it should be dress of snails of the central figure. As assigned to Kanei\e Sho-dai. In this at- far as the writer is aware, it is the only tribution, one would la\- stress on the guard of Kaneiye in which perspective has character of its execution—its roughl\' been fairl\' attempted; thus in the cortege treated margins, its bold relief, and its of Bodhisattvas, the more distant figures greater weight. It retains, also, the deli- fade awa\' in size, and details vanish, as cate black scales at various points of the in faces and hands, giving to the procession guard, suggesting that it was at one time an appearance of great length. As an aid covered with lacquer. These scales, so in producing this illusion, we may note far as the writer knows, occur only in the that the halos, which are in bold relief authentic works of the first generation. in the foreground, fade away into mere
In its theme, too, it is typical of the earliest shadows in the figures in the rear. So, generation. It pictures on its face a de- too, in the treatment of the cloud: it rolls scent of the heaveni)' hosts, and on the up its vapors boldl\' in the foreground, reverse, in fearful contrast, a fiend, with then spreads out, and in the background horns, tusks, pitchfork, and cauldron, win- fades away in a trail. High lights, as usual nowing human bones. It can safely be in Kanene guards, are carried out in pre- said that the present composition is one cious metals. The sacred lamps and the of the most important attributed to the mirror are picked out in gold; faces and early Kanen e. In no other guard, for hands are of silver, and these, catching the example, are so many figures portrayed. light, make the background appear still
Even in the matter of size it is exceptional, darker, and thus add to the mvstery of the for it measures 3^"i- inches in height. On theme. The provenance of the present the face of the guard there are no less than guard cannot be followed. It appears to thirteen personages, and so strongl\- have been purchased by Dr. Mene early grouped that the artist has felt it proper in his career as a collector of Japanese to leave bare the entire opposite (left) side sword-guards, perhaps in the early seven- of the guard. On a descending cloud ap- ties, when man\' excellent objects found pears foremost Amida Butsu, lotus-borne, their way out of Japan. Dr. Mene. it ma\" at his side Sessei bowing in pra\er, and be remarked, was a great admirerof the work Kwannon, who stooping has taken in her of this school of tsuba artists. He had, hands the fruit of the lotus, and is present- indeed, in his collection possibly fifty guards ing it to the world. These three figures are signed Kanqi\e, but all of these will be modeled in the master's best stxle, simple, generall\ accepted as the work of copxists. XXXII A THIRTEENTH-CENTURY MARBLE RELIEF FROM POBLET
monastery of Poblet was the of Tarragona where a new monument has"» THEhome of many examples of early been erected. Spanish art which are now exhib- Aside from the interest of provenance,, ited in foreign museums; for the the present relief is worthy of careful rioters who plundered and partly demol- study from two viewpoints: first as an ished the ancient buildings in 1822-1835 cbjet d'ari and second as a rare document carried away numberless statues and decor- for the study of early military equipment. ative fragments from altars and tombs. In the first regard, one recalls that the Some of these objects early found their plastic art had reached an extraordinary way into the hands of traveling artists, who degree of development in Spain during the used them as studio "effects" in days when thirteenth century, and it is not difficult every studio was more or less a bric-a-brac to decide that the present work shows the shop; others have remained hidden away marks of its place of origin and of the in the neighborhood, and have been ex- period. The horse bears its knight proudly, tracted year by year by visiting collectors, its legs, fore and hind, separated widely, sometimes from the most unlikely places the posture of a trained horse en grande —garrets, cellars, garden rockeries, foun- tenue. It seems huge in size, for the head tains, and stables. Even a few years ago is small, the neck high and straight, quite an interesting marble relief was discovered, giraffme, and there is a mystical look about as I myself can bear witness, in a poultry it which recalls to us the apocalyptic beas- stall in the street market of the neighboring ties dear to the artists of those days. Over Tarragona. Important finds, however, the horse's head and shoulders passes a have become rare; noteworthy, therefore, tightly fitted housing which falls in narrow is the Museum's acquisition of a small rounding folds about the neck, and extends bas-relief (18 in. x 22-2 in.) of a chevalier, thence from the chest to the ground, its lately unearthed, which formed part of one lower margins rolling outward in slightly of the earliest monuments of the ancient radiate folds. The housing appears at the church. It is probably from the side or crupper also, and, after the mode of the end of a tomb, and from its excellent work- thirteenth century, hangs nearly to the manship the object was evidently pre- hoofs. The chevalier himself is executed pared in memory of a personage of the in a masterly way. He sits lightly bal- highest rank. This we may fairly conclude anced, high in his armored saddle, with the was the celebrated conquistador, Jaime I; air of one who has been reared on horse- for a part of a border of a monument bear- back; one feels that his knees grasp the ing the kingly blazon of Aragon was dis- saddle and that his feet swing freely in the covered at the same time, a fragment stirrup. And that his seat is good is which formed a cornice for the present shown in the swing of his shoulders and in relief. Certainly the object dates from the the inward curve of his backbone above the period of Don Jaime, who died in 1276. hips. Even the set of his head indicates Other parts of his tomb have been pre- the horseman at his ease. As he turns to served and correspond in material and face the observer, he extends his arms in workmanship to the present sculpture. gesture of salute. The proportions of the
The mummy of the king, it may be noted, figures are clearly naive, the horse is a
is no longer at Poblet; it was transferred monster and the man is a dwarf in arm and about 1836 to the choir of the Cathedral leg, but these are defects which are soon
73 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
forgotten. One notes rather the poise and basinet which extends low at the back of energy of the knight and his destrier, a the head, comes to a sub-acute point, and composition of rare vitalitw Its sculptor is strengthened by strips of metal, probably had also master}' of his material. He was of steel gilded, which covered the sutures sure of his lines, whether chiseling in bold- of the triangular plates which make up the est relief, or modeling delicate draperies, shell, or timbre, of the casque of this period. showing in these matters the same traits The knight is full\' clad in banded mail, as the Greek artists. The entire marble which is of links of the largest size, and his appears to have been brightly pol\chromed, heav\- shirt or hauberk extends down the judging from the present traces of color; thighs half-way to the knees. He is wear- the horse's housings were striped verticall}' ing a surcoat, close-fitting, but slashed in red (the color of Aragon), and their at the skirts; it is especially interesting, linings were green. as the modeling clearl\' shows, that a From the viewpoint of the stud\' of heavil}' padded garment was present ancient armor, the present sculpture is of underneath the mail. The legs were considerable value. It supplements, in encased in a pantaloon of chain-mail which the round, the drawings of the manuscript terminated in mail sollerets, as one some- Cantigas de Santa Maria, of Alphonso the times sees in earl>' brasses. The mail of Wise, which is preserved today in the the hand was not continued over the palm:
Escorial. It shows similar horse trappings, here a separate pad is shown which was including a curious plate, probabl\' of probablx' of leather. .A. narrow ceinture cuir-bouilli, which protected the flank and suspends the long straps of the sword rump. The rein was singularl\' light, prob- hanger, which is articulated to the scab- abl\ of horsehair, which was flung over bard b>' means of large rings. The sword the high cantle of the saddle; it was for hilt has the usual short guard and straight curb onl\', and the branch of the bit, to quillons, and the pommel is unusual in which it was attached, extended far down developing the form of a fleur-de-lis. at the side, the ring marking its end appear- The buckler, borne on the knight's ex- ing against the horse's neck. 'Twas a tended arm, is t\'picall\' Spanish; its rim merciless curb, and speaks clearly of a time is distinct and was probabl\' of metal and when a rider expected instant obedience; its central portion was of wood, or possibl\' he had other things to do than struggle of boiled leather; the straps for the hand with his horse; his hands must be largel\' and arm were broad and strong, and their free for the use of buckler and sword. In ends slightl\' ornamented where the\' were the knight's equipment one notes the oarl\ fastened to the shield.
74 MARBLE RELIEF SPANISH, THIRTEENTH CENTURY XXXlll
A RA\EX IN EMBOSSED STEEL THE JAPANESE ARMORER AHOCHIN MLNESLKE
^*^T^HE Mu- mind, moreover, and to the foreign one I Iji h // V for that matter, this pose has about it something which grows in meaning—an W<\'A^ ^ A recentlv idea both humorous and human which in Paris at the makes the real raven fit into its stiif iron
, , ^^ A (', sale of Dr. EEd- shell. 'Tis a thieving ra\en that is pic- # lY ouard Mene. tl:he tured, but one with a twinge of conscience, 7 /'' V '/ well-known col- alert on his spread legs, his wings with lector of Japan- just a degree of readiness about them; a ese ironwork, the raven that hesitates to make a sound, but celebrated Raven has his beak slightl\- opened, as though he
which had long feels it his dut\' to sa\- something. But he
been known as still remains undecided in spite of the the capital piece intense thought which causes him to cock of his collection. his head sidewise. .After all. he ma\' be This had come to expected to slink awa\' uncaught and "save
SIGNATURE OF Dr. Mene earl\ his face." . . . Ever\- one who ob-
MYOCHIN MLNESLKE in his career as a serves him, I believe, develops such impres- collector, had sions. In fact, when the collection Mene
been described and figured in various works was exhibited at the Hotel Drouot it was on Japanese art, and had been exhibited interesting to stand near the case of the at the Museurrs Guimet. Cernuschi, and raven and stud\' the effect he made upon elsewhere. his visitors. The\" would come up, one
The raven is, of ccurse, an okimono, or after another, and glance at him in the ornament for the ceremonial niche (toko- hurried way of auction-hunters; then their noma) of a Japanese room. It is of large expression of haste faded awa\' and the\' size, about eighteen inches in length, and would examine him quietly, sometimes seems to ha\e been prepared for a great circling about till thc\' came to rest at the tokonoma, such as one sees in the palace of right point of view. His, in fact, was the a daim\o. It is an extraordinarx^ object only case in the gallery before which visi-
frcm man\" points of view; it is made of a tors would usually come to a full stop.
material which is least suited to plastic And their remarks showed clearl}' that
work, it is embossed with close fidelit\ to the\ appreciated the artist's point of view. nature, and it is remarkable in its li\ing In fact, in an instance of this kind, the qualitw In the last regard, if in no other, Parisian art-collector is singularly apt to it differs from the hundred and one oki- seize the conception of the Japanese. mono of its t\"pe which one finds in modern The present okimono bears the signature shops. The bird has been caught b\' the of M\ochin Shikibu Kino Munesuke, the artist not onl\- in a lifelike pose, but in a Chinese characters of whose name appear raven's pose, and in one which, while full on a featherless tract under the tail. And of expression, is motionless, therefore this M\ochin is evidentl\' the Munesuke suited to representation. To the Japanese who flourished in Tok\o, or V'edo, in the 76 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR early years of the eighteenth century (his of preparing armor for a court which was precise dates, I find, were from 1646 to always at peace, and he was constant'y 1724), and who was widely known for his tempted by tasks which lay beyond his work in repousse. He it was who prepared field. So he amused himself and startled helmets (hachi) embossed in fantastic his distinguished patrons by exhibiting ob- forms for members of the shogunate, to- jects which had never before been pro- gether with plastrons and shoulder guards duced in iron. From huge eagles to
RAVEN BY MYOCHIN MUNESUKE with splendid dragons in relief. Armor minute fireflies he forged ornaments of ail making, indeed, was his true claim to recog- sizes and forms. What his fellow-artists nition as a member of a distinguished would model in wax, for bronze-founding, family, for he was the official representative he modeled at once in armor-steol, and of and twenty-second in descent from the he is reproached with having forged first Myochin Munesuke, the great artist- princely armor with less skill than he armorer of the twelfth century. made to\'s.
The second Munesuke, it appears, was a Doubtless much of the work which bears versatile genius; he is said to have wearied the name Munesuke is false, perhaps in as
77 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART large a proportion as eight examples in their outline and texture in a masterly way. ten. But the present object is apparently The metal itself is of the qualit\' one would the exceptional one. It is admirably exe- expect, and the patine and the signature cuted, and as an example of steel repousse are convincing. But the best evidence
it is quite equal to the best work of the be- which associates it with the hand of Mune- ginning of the eighteenth century. The suke is the livingness and expression which incised lines representing feathers give has been pounded into this bird of steel.
RAVEN BY MYOCHIN MUNESUKE
78 XXXIV
TWO MEMORIAL EFFIGIES OF THE LATE XVI CENTURY
ing some of our rarest armor, together with RlinPMAf^i all objects which were associated with memorial chapels and offerings —not omit- DURING the Middle Ages west- ting'pictures and tapestries. In this con- ern art differed notably from the nection it is now known definitely that art of the Far East in the nature the Museum's suite of Gothic tapestries of its causal impulse or inspira- hung in a mortuary chapel. tion. This in the former case was the In the matter of commemorating the teaching of the Christian church; in the dead this condition is best illustrated latter, it was a body of social precepts among earlier objects—those which ante- which considered the family as more or date the middle of the sixteenth century: less a religious organization. The church after this, modernism had become wide- fathers took into account this earlier cult spread, and ambitions developed along and rather belittled it: they preached in the lines rather of things for the living certain instances the disrupting of family than of costly veneration for the dead. bonds, a humility which was higher than During the Middle Ages the history of names or blazons, and in general a disre- these pious works can be followed with fair gard for such vanities as memorials, accuracy by tabulating the monuments whether for the quick or the dead. The with which early churches are filled; for strictest fathers even went so far in an it is reasonable to infer that the sentiment opposite direction as to commend un- was strongest where families were most marked graves and ossuaries in common. willing to pay roundly to commemorate But the ancient feeling of filial piety the life of a kinsman. On such grounds we which expressed itself in costly memorials conclude that this form of family piet\' was could not be modified readily: it had developed strongly in the twelfth and grown on European soil in Roman and pre- thirteenth centuries; that it reached a
Roman times, and although it had not high point in the fourteenth (bear witness rooted itself so deeply as in the East, its the quality of the church brasses in Eng- influence was potent. It is a curious fact, land); and that it touched its zenith in indeed, that so large a proportion of the the fifteenth century when memorials of objects of western art preserved in our every nature literally crowded the churches museums is of a memorial nature, things of Europe: they took the form of woodwork referring usually to the dead, occasionally and statuary, stuffs, lamps, churchlx- appa- to the living, paid for out of the family ratus, pictures, illuminations, glass — repre- purse, and cared for by the family directly senting almost every branch of the art in- or indirectly. In fact, should we take terests of the period. from a modern museum, the Metropolitan But all of the mediaeval objects which Museum, for example, all objects which memorial chapels have yielded us were served as memorials, or were connected only the accessories of the tomb. The with the care of the dead, we should well- nucleus of activity (speaking paradoxicaIl\') nigh destroy the galleries of Egyptology was clearly the gravestone or efiig\- of the and the Department of Classical Art, and dead, and this therefore ma\- well be ex- we should sadly injure other branches of pected to serve as an index to the artistic exhibition; important statuary would dis- development of its period. In fact, all appear, as well as much metalwork, includ- museums will admit the great, the \ er\' —
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART great value of mediaeval effigies in the provenance, and had at hand a clipping history of western art, yet curiously enough from a Lyons paper CLa Salut Publique, they purchase and exhibit them rarely: March 6, 1912) which showed when and they buy eagerly the fittings of chapels, where they had been found. It appeared but few there are that would be willing to that they had been made the subject of a purchase gravestones, lest, for one impor- report before the Academy at Lyons by tant reason, in this way they encourage M. Caillemer, who stated that thev had their pillage. They would rather, in some been discovered about 1830 at Sainte Foy, instances, contribute to keeping ancient on the site of the present Hospice du Boeuf. monuments in their original condition. M. Caillemer recalled to the Academy the The few good monuments which have found paper on these effigies which had been their way into trade have usually been presented by M. Begule at the session of taken from ruined churches and here the April 13, 1907, and he hoped that the Acad- truest piety was evidently to remove the emy would take measures to preserve these tombs and care for them in a museum objects of art in the Museum at Lyons, gallery. Under these conditions it has for he declared that there was danger happened that the South Kensington Mu- of their being "sold and shipped to seum, the Louvre, the Bavarian National America." Museum, and the Germanic Museum, The effigies are in high relief: they pic- especially, have come to acquire objects of ture man and wife, the former of mature the greatest technical and artistic interest. age, in full armor, lacking casque only; Up tothe present time, however, the Metro- the latter in a flowing robe, with stomacher politan Museum has had few opportunities and cap. The heads of both rest on of making acquisitions of this kind. double cushions, which are sculptured
Through Mr. Morgan's interest it has in- intricately with galloon and tassels. The deed two kneeling portrait-figures from the statues are evidently portraits, and in- memorial chapel of the de Biron, but it has teresting portraits at that, though they no worthy brasses, no sculptured slabs, and can hardly claim the merit of great works until recently, no recumbent effigies. We of art. They were finished soberly, and mention, therefore, as a step in the direc- with great attention to detail—thus, the tion of filling this gap, the acquisition of hands are evidently intended to be as two figures, which, although of late date accurately modeled as the faces. The
(about 1 590) when tomb portraits were armor and draperies are carved with the becoming less interesting, have at least the same painstaking care, although the result merit of having been made by a well- is perhaps needlessly stiff. One discovers known artist. only here and there a trace of the skill of
A few details of these effigies may be the earlier portraitists, e. g., in the treat- given —they are of life size, sculptured in ment of the robe at the knees and feet, white marble, and were primitively colored and in the modeling of the man's right (monochrome). They were found in Lyons forearm and hand. where they appear to have belonged to a From the viewpoint of the costumes of chapel now destroyed. In general, time the period, the figures are remarkable. has treated them kindly; man alone in They have unusual simplicity; the armor
their case has been vile, for he broke them is plain, there are no jewels or ornaments, into transverse pieces when he scaled them the woman's collar and head-gear are quite from the slabs on which they were mounted, unadorned,—features all of which suggest and he has cared for them shabbily. In that the man and wife were Huguenots fact, when they were brought to the atten- a suggestion borne out incidentally by the tion of the Secretary of the Museum they way in which the man wears his hair and were in a dingy little upholstery shop in the beard. Then, too, the figures date clearly Latin Quarter, standing in a dark corner from the great Huguenot period, for the behind a pile of rusty chairs. The pro- details of armor (which, for the rest, shows prietor of the shop, however, knew their some rare technical features), head-dress, 80 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR and stomacher give quite an accurate date important commissions for the Holy See," to the work. he had executed the colossal statue and One may hazard the note, furthermore, tomb of Gregory XIII at the Capitol, that the people were personages, for they and the relief on the monument of Gregory were of sufficient importance to warrant XI at Santa Francesca Romana; by this their family seeking to have the portraits time, too, he had probably finished the executed by a foreign artist well known in Saint Anthony upon the tomb of Sixtus V his day. This was the Roman sculptor, at Santa Maria, as well as the important Pietro Paolo Olivieri (i 551-1599), whose bas-reliefs at the Villa della Volte near signature appears admirably chiseled on Siena. His best-known work is, perhaps, one of the cushions. Oliveri was then at the high altar of the basilica of Saint John the height of his career; he had carried out in the Lateran.
MEMORIAL EFFIGIES BY PIETRO PAOLO OLIVIERI
81 —
XXXV
LOAN COLLECTION OF L\PaNESE SWORD-G LARDS
Museum is fortunate in being from the fact that until well on in the THEable to show a notable selection seventeenth centur\" vigorous iron guards of Japanese sword-guards (tsuba) were produced in large numbers, although from the collection of Mr. Mal- with an increasing tendency toward elab- colm MacMartin. of this city. The guards orate decoration. are exhibited in a case in the present hall In the luxurious era of Genroku. covering of Japanese armor. the last decade of the centur> and extend- Mr. MacMartin's special taste runs in ing into the next centur\' of our reckoning, the line of decorated guards, and conse- the art of metalwork received fresh de- quently there are but few e.xamples sho^n velopment. Even the armorers of the that date back of the eighteenth centur>-. time, such as Munesuke, produced varied The division of centuries in the western works, of which the raven of embossed steel, method ot computation was, of course. recentiv acquired bv the .Museum, is a fine never a division in the minds of the Japan- example. But the full flowering of the art ese and onl\ roughh' ser^ es the purpose of of decorated guards in various metals classification. Nevertheless, the triumph bronze, silver, shibuichi, and shakudo of the Tokugawa clan in the civil wars that with ever>' varietv of inlays and incrusta- were raging at the beginning of the seven- tions, came later in that centur>', and con- teenth ceniur> . resulting in the establish- tinued, with even excessive luxuriance, ment of a regime that lasted down to 1868, until the ver> end of the feudal system, affords a line of natural demarkation in the late in the nineteenth centur>, and until matter of sword-guards, as well as in Japan- the carrying of the two swords, the dis- ese political histor\ . Lp to that time the tinctive honor of the samurai, was for- guards had, with but few exceptions, been bidden bv imperial decree. Twice within made of iron for actual use in warfare and this period, the tendency to excessive dec- these derive their artistic value from the oration had been checked, notably by Goto quality and treatment of the iron and from Ichijo, working nearlv three quarters of excellence of design in openwork or stamf>- the ceniurv . and by the work and influence ing or car\ ing in the same metal, and from of Kano Natsuo, who sur\ived until i8g8. variety of contour. It is true that one or some twenty \ears after the occasion for more of the masters of the Kaneis e family the making of honest sword-guards had had earlier begun to decorate the iron ceased. guards with incrustations of gold and The schools of artists working from early silver, although how long before the end of in the eighteenth centur> are numerous, the sixteenth centur> the first of these and the artists of the various schools who masters flourished is still a matter of con- became individuallv famous are too many troversy, some authorities insisting that to enumerate. They are admirably repre- he worked toward the end of the fifteenth sented in works of great distinction and centur> and others that his date was one beaut) in the loan exhibition now on view. hundred years later. Even after the power .A tew of the iron guards of earlier makers, of the Tokugawa shogunate was firml\' notably a large guard signed Kaneiye, and established, doubts as to the continuance of another signed ^'asuchika, a guard ad- peace under this rule naturally remained, mirabi> wrought in a design of rings by and evidence of this may fairly be drawn Masanori, and a later guard of varied 82 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
incrustations by Goto Ichijo working under signed, it appears, with only the name of the name of Mitsuvuki, afford excellent the owner, may well have been the work opportunity for contrast; but the prevailing of Ichijo himself. Jeweler's art could charm of the exhibition lies in the variety scarcely go further than in the wonderful and beauty of the guards in other metals. guard by Konkwan, picturing a merry boy Such masters as Sekijo and Teijo, in applauding a servant who has been well addition to Ichijo, of the Goto school, entertained on his rounds with New Year Somin of the Yokoya school, Joi of the greetings. Of the finest quality of shi-
SWORD-GUARDS FROM THE MALCOLM MACMARTIN COLLECTION
Nara school, and such great artists as buichi is a guard with simple decoration Konkwan of the Iwamoto family, and of plum blossoms by Hokkyii. The im- Nagatsune, Mitsuoki, Atsuoki, and Hide- maculate workmanship of Natsuo himself, yuki are shown in examples which we may the last of the very great masters, appears well believe represent them at their best. in a guard of exquisite beauty, copied, as
SWORD-GUARDS FROM THE MALCOLM MACMARTIN COLLECTION
A beautiful shakudo guard, with decora- the record of the maker tells us. from a tion of waves, by Masahiro, naturally guard b\' Muneharu of the Miochin famil\-; attracts our attention for its severity of de- while in a guard, similarh copied by sign, which invites comparison with the Kazuma of the Umetada familw tribute is early work of the school of Goto Ichijo, paid to Tachibana Munc\oshi, an earlier the master who notably revived the de- master of the same familw Finall\ . we clining fame of the Goto family. A sha- ma\' note the exquisite guard in shakudo kudo guard showing peonies in bold relief, of almost satin finish, with design of
83 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART flowering bush. b\" Teikwan. who records the era of Meiji, working thus with loving on the guard that he made it in a small care in the twilight of a vanishing art of cottage surrounded bv the forest near the unique originalit}' and enduring charm.
Sumida River, where it flows b\' Tokvo, in Howard Mansfield.
SWORD-GLARDS FROM THE MALCOLM MACMARTIN COLLECTION
84 XXXVI
THE WILLIAM H. RIGGS COLLECTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR
WILLIAM HENRY RIGGSof greatest value in its relation to the stud\' of Paris, son of Elisha Riggs, mediaeval and Renaissance art, and of their the well-known banker of lively appreciation of the spirit of patriot- New York, Baltimore, and ism which led Mr. Riggs to render so nota- Washington, influenced by his high regard ble a service to the people of this country for his lifelong friend, the late J. Pierpont through the Museum of his native city. Morgan, and his belief in the important The Trustees requested Mr. Riggs to act part The Metropolitan Museum is destined as a Trustee of the Collection during his life- to play in the future of the art of this coun- time, and to supervise its proper installation try, presented to the Museum in May of in the addition to the building, then under last year his collection of arms and armor, construction, and now known as Wing H. which has long been known to be unrivaled The collection has been shipped from
among those of private collectors. The gift Mr. Riggs's house in Paris, and is now being was accepted by the Trustees on May 19, prepared for exhibition. The date of its 191 3, in a resolution which expressed their installation will be announced in a later estimation of the collection as of the Bulletin.
BURGANET, ETCH ED AND GILDED, ABOUT I550
ATTRIBUTED TO HENRY II OF FRANCE RIGGS COLLECTION
cSs XXXVII
MR. RIGGS AS A COLLECTOR OF ARMOR
needs, much who would become father, the well-known banker, in 1853, HEa successful collector: he should was the turning-point in his career. It begin early; he should be devoted became his wish to obtain a technical
and persistent; he must have at training which should fit him to take hand the necessary time and means; he charge of some of the family's mining must feel that he has a mission to accom- property in the Alleghaniesf and on this plish ; he should have what people call "good account he took a journey abroad which, luck"; and, most of all, perhaps, he must be as it proved, changed his life-plans. He born with a "seeing eye" to fit him to pick reached Paris with letters to the father of and choose. the present Due de Loubat, who advised Judged by these tests, William Henry him to enter the preparatory school of Mr. Riggs has had every qualification for a Sillig at Vevey. Here he became a fellow- successful career. Even as a child, he student of J. Pierpont Morgan, then a spent his time arranging and labeling studious young man whose major interest "specimens" on the shelves of his museum was mathematics, and who was surprising in the top story of the family house facing his comoanions and instructors by such Bowling Green. When about fifteen he feats as "calculating cube root in his began gathering Indian arms and costumes, head." Mr. Riggs and young Morgan and in 1853 he sent to New York one of the straightway became devoted and, as it earliest ethnological collections from the proved, lifelong friends; both had the col- east slopes of the Rockies, which, unfor- lecting instinct and already visited anti- tunateh', was lost soon afterward in a quity shops during their numerous excur- warehouse fire. This collection he brought sions. For his part young Riggs soon filled together on a trip to the West, made in his rooms and pantries with Swiss swords compan\' with his brother Elisha, on the and daggers, some of which were of such Benton-Beal Expedition. Here, the \oung interest that they have always kept their collector gained his first-hand knowledge of place in his collection.
Indian objects. At one time he had the It is doubtful whether Mr. Riggs knew choice of arms of eight hundred war- precisely why he came to collect ancient painted Pawnees. His collecting instincts armor and arms, but it was unquestionably in those days sometimes led him into peril- from the Vevey period that his idea of a ous paths. On one occasion he became all definite mission dated. —His collection was but entangled in a herd of bison; and on to be a national one "to instruct and another, after having been detained on please the art-loving people of his country" account of a "trade," he was the last to —and this aim he consistently bore in cross a ford, was swept with his horse into mind. At that time he certainly had about the Arkansas River, and was saved only him no friends who were interested in by a long cast of the lasso of one of the similar objects and whose rivalry would guides, the half-breed Antonio de la Rue. have spurred him on. But neither then nor After this incident the expedition's leader, later did Mr. Riggs need sympathy or sup- Colonel Beal, told off his best guide, Kit port: he knew definitely what he wanted;
Carson, "to keep a sharp eye on that boy." if he found that he had made a mistake he
Young Riggs prepared himself to enter profited by it. He always said that ex- Columbia College; but the death of his perience was his best teacher. 86 —
NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
Looking over our catalogue, I find that cates of the royal collection were dispersed, most of his objects were purchased be- and Mr. Riggs seems -ever to have had the tween the years 1856 and i860. His first choice of them. One of his best headquarters during part of this time were friends at this period, a great lover of an- in Dresden, where he attended engineering cient armor, was the distinguished director courses in the Technische Hochschule. of the Munich Museum, Professor Hefner- Here, too, he began his studies in archaeo- Alteneck, and to him the young collector logy. He haunted the gallery of the royal was indebted for important hints. To- collection, which was then in the Zwinger, gether they attended the sale of the ancient
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V Hi PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM H. RIGGS IN HIS ARMORY IN THE RUE MURILLO, I913
and it was not long before he was on inti- armory at the castle Hohenaschau, where mate terms with the director of the armory. the objects had been preserved alwa}'s Soon, too, he came to meet others who the armor hanging on its ancient racks. showed a learned sympathy for his interest Mr. Riggs was soon in touch, also, with the in armor, and through these new friends Count de Ley den, whose castle at M axel- Mr. Riggs received valuable suggestions. rein near Munich contained man\' trea- Luckily, then as afterward his means were sures; these promptly fell into Mr. Riggs's such that he did not hesitate to secure the hands. Another friend was the Baron \ on best objects which came into the market. Arretine, whose collection was also secured,
At that time it happened that many dupli- rhese years were active ones in Mr. 87 .
THE y.ETROFOLITAN MLSELM OF ART
Riggs's life. For one thing, he traveled which hung casques and ssvords of the b\-
constantl}', and the provenance of his gone doges. In the Tiepolo palace, I objects shows how intimate he was with the remember, he made numerous "finds," little towns in and out of German\", their and incidentall>' purchased the stamped collectors, and their dealers in antiquities. leather which now hangs in his dining He visited \'ienna several times when he room. This he insisted upon taking down learned there was something interesting himself; and as a result of his enthusiasm, in the market. At dinner one evening, Mr. Riggs and his valet were blackened and he was told b\ Hefner-.-Klteneck that cer- nearly stified by the soot\" dust, the accu- tain rare head-pieces, "dog-faced basinets,'' mulation of centuries, which the removal of were about to be sold in the ancient arsenal every plate of leather brought down upon of Mayence: he took the hint, traveled all their devoted heads. In those days, too, night, and was present when the armor\' he made finds in the old palaces in Genoa, opened, thus anticipating the arrival of where he secured, b\' the way, precious dealers from Berlin and Paris. So, too, he Renaissance furniture, including inlaid
visited Solothurn when it was disposing folding chairs, dating from the end of the of some of the pieces in the ancient civic fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth armor\-, obtaining thus man\- suits of centurx', admirably preserved and in their Swiss armor and a large series of swords original leather cases: these he obtained and halberds. above the eaves of one of the Doria pal- Nor did he neglect the collecting possi- aces. .Milan, too, was a well-covered
bilities of Italx . Here he had convenient hunting ground. Here he was fortunate headquarters in Florence at Lord Nor- in making the acquaintance of the famous manby's villa, which Mr. Riggs's mother Lboldo; for the cavaliere di molii ordini, as and sister had leased, it was then he he called himself, was one of the greatest came to meet Mr. Stibberts, an English collectors of armor. For one thing Lboldo collector of similar tastes, whose remark- had had great chances, bringing together able museum has since been presented to his objects at an earl\' period, mainly be- Florence. It was then, also, that Mr. tween 1830 and 1850, when a choice of Riggs made a great "strike" in securing beautiful arms was still to be had. He, the collection of Marquis Panciatichi also, was one of the few amateurs who Ximenes, whose wish to dispose of his arms loved the simple armor of the fifteenth
is said to have lasted but twenty-four century, which is admirable in its lines and
hours—long enough to enable Mr. Riggs is of the best qualit>' of metal, and he was to place the objects in baskets and to carr\- one of the first modern collectors to prize them out of the palace. There were but especially the work of the .Milanese familx' 300 objects all told; but these were of of armorers, .Missaglia-Negroli. Lboldo delightful qualitN', and some of them histor- had intended to present his collection to ical, including two wheellock guns which the Italian government; but a slight, real for beautx of ornament would be capital ob- or imaginary, from King \'ictor Emmanuel jects in anv national collection. X'enice al- hardened his patriotic heart and caused so proved a rich collecting field: in those him to turn over to .Mr. Riggs almost all of da\ s the shops on the Grand Canal, such as his collection. Richetti's and Marignoni's. offered choice In the late fifties, .Mr. Riggs discovered arms; and, thanks to his friends, Mr. Riggs that Spain still retained rich hoards of ar- was able to visit some of the old palaces, mor. He made in all seven collecting trips the garrets ot which he ransacked minutelw there, and on one of them he spent about Here treasures were to be discovered: in a year in Seville, where, as well as in .Mad- the lumber rooms he was apt to find the rid, he secured material of great value. curious "stemmi," which in olden da\s In those days there were few antiquity stood near the palace door and bristled shops, and it is interesting to note the with fancifullv carved arms, suggesting sources of man\- of .Mr. Riggs's arms. the brackets of a gigantic hat-rack, upon This one was found at a hatter's, that at a 88 CASQUES, EMBOSSED AND DAMASKEENED XVI CENTURY, ITALIAN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
cobbler's, and that again from a head turned over to him his versatile valet, waiter or a local blacksmith. Sometimes Pasquale Rose, who remained long in Mr. the Spanish gentlemen to whom he had Riggs's service. It was soon after this letters would drop everything and proceed (1858) that Mr. Riggs saw much of Spain to hunt arms for him, and their finds were out of the beaten tracks. He dressed in ever "a la disposicion de Usted," gifts the native "Marco" costume and trav- embarrassing him frequently by their mag- eled with an elaborate camping outfit; nificence. Thus, at Valencia, Don Ramon he spent weeks in the saddle, and his d'Orcana presented him with a remark- acquisitions followed him on a string of able suit of armor of scales of an almost pack-mules. In those days by-paths in Spain were not always safe, and more than once he ran imminent risk of robbery and captivity. In fact, he was once "enter- tained" several days by the notorious bandit, Jose Maria, whom Mr. Riggs suc- ceeded in impressing so favorably that he was not only allowed to leave without being robbed, but was even sent a present when in Seville. Mr. Riggs's interest in armor and arms centered in those of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Few of his pieces belong to a more modern date than the middle of the seventeenth century. Late objects were left for the collectors whom Mr. Riggs designated as mere "sabretasche men"; and early objects, he came to believe, represented a class by themselves. So he exchanged with the Due de Luynes his arms of classical antiquity and of the "age of stone." For the great domain of Oriental armor and arms he had never a keen in-
terest. He bought these objects, it is true, when he visited the East, though his journeying there was memorable less as improving his collection than as well-
nigh bringing it to an end tragically: he PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM H. RIGGS nearly lost his life in a pit of mummied AS HE JOURNEYED IN SPAIN, 1857 crocodiles when the dust ignited and the whole pitchy mass burst into flames; he unknown t\ pe and with numerous pieces was sun-struck at Sinai; and he nearly died never before out of the possession of his of Syrian fever near lerusalem. family, including the embroidered hunting There was apparently but one person belt of an ancestor who had been the who had real influence upon Mr. Riggs's grand veneur d'Espagne. At the ruins of career as a collector, and whom he willingly Italica be met the Count of Paris and was acknowledges his master. This was Pere invited by him to his home in Seville, then Carrand, an elderly Norman scholar, who in the palace of his cousins, the Mont- had long been an archivist at Lyons, and pensiers, who became much interested in had won fame as a discoverer of palimp- the work of the young collector. The sests and as a numismatist, but who was Due de Montpensier, to further his especially a lover and collector of ancient success, gave him letters to friends near arms. To Carrand, as to his pupil, arms and far; and, to aid him in traveling, and armor had the interest of romance, 90 VIEW IN HIE RKU.S CALLhR^ THE METROPOLITAN MU5ELM OF ART and to acquire them was worth an\' sac- of pre-revolutionary France, and when he rifice. Although Carrand had but a called upon Mr. Riggs he appeared, as modest income, this detail did not prevent became his dignitw in lace jabot and ornate his collecting, since he was quite willing to shoe-buckles. He was singularly un- economize rigorously. He had cramped worldl\ ; his only plan for getting money quarters in an out-of-the-wa\' neighbor- for the purchase of armor was to spend his hood, and he even cooked his own food; income in no other way, certainly not to but so far as precious possessions went, he exploit his skill and knowledge as a con- lived en gratide prince, surrounded by noisseur. .-Xs an example of this, he is Gothic armor. Mr. Risgs has still a said to have accepted no fee for forming the cabinet of arms of his friend, Prince Solt>- koff. which cost him \ears of labor. Nor could he be tempted to dispose of the objects in his collection, no matter what bids were made. Onl\', after his death, when his armor was scattered, did .Mr. Riggs succeed in obtaining certain coveted pieces. It was about 1857, ^hat .Mr. Riggs de- cided to make his headquarters in Paris, and to bring his armor to his hotel in the rue d'Aumale. In Paris at this time there was an exceptionallv delightful society of painters, musicians, litterateurs, archaeolo- gists, and collectors, including a brilliant coterie of armor lovers, headed b\ the Fmperor himself. In such society .Mr. Riggs was ever persona grata: in fact, his house became a gathering place for well- known amateurs like \'ictor Gay, \'ioIlet le Due, Panguilley I'Haridon. director of the •mperial collection of armor which was then housed at Saint Tomas d'.Aquin, Baron de Ressmann, Sir Richard Wallace, Count de Nieuwerkirke, snrintendani des beaux arts, high in the favor of the im- perial famil\- ^especially, as gossip said, PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM H. RIGGS of the Princess Matilde\ Chabriere-.Arles, TAKEN IN PARIS ABOUT 1858 Prince Basilewsky, .Marquis de Belleval, and the romantic de Beaumont, whose bright memorx' of Carrand's dust\' home, swords and daggers have since become in which the staircase leading to the bed- treasures of the Cluny; for such painters room was cluttered with priceless armets as Gustave Dore, Fortuny, Henri Pille, de and salades. It was from Carrand that .Madrazo, Gerome; for such musical artists Mr. Riggs first learned the living charm of as Patti, N'esiri, Strakosh, and Liszt. Here the armorer's art; and together the two in the rue d'.Aumale one might see of an collectors, literallv at the feet of Carrand's evening, perhaps after a soiree at the Tuil- harnesses, would pore night-long over the leries, representatives of all countries of pages of ancient Froissart or Olivier de la Europe, "assisting" at a concert given in .Marche, reading how armor was made, .Mr. Riggs's theatre, which was built at worn, and used, and how in earl\' times it one end of his great gallery. was preserved and transported. The old It was in 1870, during the Franco- collector had the training of a gentleman Prussian War. that .Mr. Riggs brought his
92 BUCKLER EMBOSSED AND DAMASKEENED ITALIAN, XVI CENTURY —
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART collection to its home in the rue Murillo lery, usuall\' with an armorer at his elbow (No. 13), near the Pare Monceau, which —sometimes quite surrounded b\' armorers, he bought from Count de Nieuwerkirke. his own eleves —intent on removing deep- It was an unusual home, even for Paris. seated rust, replacing straps, or making
It was designed b\' Le Fuel and is des- necessar\' restorations. cribed in Charles Blanc's life of this archi- From what has alreadx' been noted, it is tect. It had in it a sculptor's studio clear that Mr. Riggs in forming his collec- which Mr. Riggs turned into a dining hall, tion drew from almost ever\' armor\-, and he arranged the entire top stor\- of the private or public, which came into the house for his galler\- of armor. In this market. Among others, we ma\' name long room (about 50 feet wide b\' 80 feet the collections St. Maur and Pujol of Tou- long) stood his series of knightl\- figures, louse; Medina-Celi, in Madrid; Max and its walls were covered with close-set Moran of Dijon; Solt\koff, Saint Seine, trophies of pole-arms, swords, and armor. Wagner, Just, Pourtales, de Courval, de But the collection was from the beginning Roziere, Davilliers, and Spitzer in Paris; too large for its setting. Many objects, also, de Belleval of Beauvais; Marigoni of therefore, including even some of the best, .Milan; Haussmann of Vienna; and Freppa had to be hidden from view. Dismem- and Guastalla in Florence. In London his bered harnesses and arms filled all the notable acquisitions were from the sales of closets, sometimes so closely that it be- Londesborough, Meyrick, Magniac, and came impracticable to find a desired piece. de Cosson. Important specimens came to To Mr. Riggs, however, this was but an him also, directlx or indirectlx, from their incident, and his collecting went bravel\' primitive sources, as noted above. I may on. The result can readil\' be imagined; add that he obtained from the Tower of \ears would go b\', and even in spite of London a number of excellent pieces of his extraordinary memory, Mr. Riggs armor, through Prince Solt\kofl", who might forget an earl\' purchase; from time bought them at an auction at the Tower in to time, he would make happ\' discoveries the earl\' part of the last centurw The when unpacking long-hidden cases, locked prince, it appears, breakfasted that da\- cabinets, or even stored-awa\' clothing with Sir Walter Scott, who happened to for I call to mind the gilded and engraved mention that some of the duplicates at the Gothic spurs which turned up between Tower were about to be sold. Mr. Riggs la\ ers of coats not long ago. obtained, also, a number of excellent pieces In course of time, the home in the rue b\' exchange or purchase from the civic Murillo became a place of great interest armorx' of Graz. He secured man\' ob- —sometimes m\sterious interest — to all jects of the highest interest from the an- collectors cf aim.or. Mr. Riggs was ever cient collection of the Dukes of Lorraine. so bus\ am.cng his objects, repairing, clean- From a church of St. Pol in Brittan\', he ing, and arranging them, that he found came into the possession of detached pieces little time to receive visitors. Then, too, of armor of high epoch. From the Musee he hesitated to show his possessions when Carnavalet in Paris, he secured important they were not mounted properly, or to let a accessories. Some of his best specimens visitor enter his galler\' when his harnesses came directl\' from the armories of such were shrouded in hoiisses or even when chateaux as Langeais, Seraing, St. julien, the\' had not been carefull\' dusted. His Montaubon, and Roumenne. collection, he ever said, would be seen at .Mr. Riggs was eminenth successful in the proper time and in perfect order. obtaining objects which had historical as With this in view, he labored constantlx', well as artistic interest. We note, for days and weeks, often without taking time example, a cannon presented b\' King even for a walk in the neighboring pare Henr\' IV of France to his cousin the Due
Monceau (I have known him to remain de Vendome; a culverin cast b\ order of mdoors for tift\- da\s at a stretch); most Charles V, in 1523; a number of arms and of his time he would be busied in his gal- pieces of armor which belonged to the
94 .
NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR house of Savoy; an eared dagger bearing Julius 11 of Brunswick, commemorating the arms of the family Trevulcio; an early his marriage with Hedwig of Brandenburg, banner of the Medici obtained by Mr. of the Marquis de Bassompierre, of the Riggs from the Marquis de Medici in Duke of Alva, of one of the Medici, of a Turin; a stirrup from the tomb of Can della Rovere, of the Baron Preussing, of a Grande; the casque of Louis XIII and a Lallane, of a Duke of Lorraine. A capital colletin; a number of pieces of armor be- piece is the complete equestrian armor at- longing to Nicolas von Radzivil, the re- tributed to Marcus Antonius Colonna, mainder of which are now in the imperial which formerly stood in the town hall of collection in Vienna; the lance-rest of Bozen and was earlier in the Ambras Col- Philip II; breastplates bearing the arms lection. There are head-pieces of the Duke
RIGGS ARMOR GALLERY [h.8] of historical Spanish and Italian families, of Alva, of the Marquis de Tremouille, of including one which belonged to the Geno- Ferdinand of Tyrol, of Henry 1 1, of Charles ese Doria, and another which formed part V, of one of the Grimani, of a Visconti, of a of a harness of Philip Guzman; a corselet Tiepolo, and two which were borne by which was borne by the guard of honor of members of the family Montinengo of Louis XIV, and a state partizan. Of ob- Brescia. There are reinforcing plates of jects which belonged to the house of the helmets of an elector of Ba\aria, of
Saxony there is a crossbow with box of Charles V, and of Philip II. Among the bolts of Augustus the Strong; head-pieces guns is an elaborate one which belonged and cartridge boxes of Christian I, II, in the Ambras Collection. There is a pis- \' and Johann Georg 1; also the coronation tol which belonged to Charles and is gauntlets of an elector, probably Christian pictured in the state catalogue dating from
I Of engraved and gilded gauntlets he has the later part of the sixteenth centurx'. examples which belonged to Henry, prince The size and the scope of Mr. Riggs's of Wales (brother of Charles 1) and Philip collection, as shown bv a card cataK)gue II. There are suits of half-armor of prepared during the past >ear, is as follows:
95 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Suits and half suits of armor 50; de- cles dealing with armor and arms, by tached pieces of armor 328 (of these 180 VictorGay in the GlossaireArchaeologique. are helmets); banners 18; horse's bits 37; From the foregoing notes it will at least bows and crossbows 47; cannon 2; daggers be seen that Mr. Riggs has been successful 62; fire-arms, accessories (powder-horns, in his collecting activities. On the other primers, bandoliers, keys of arquebuses) 93; hand, it is difficult to estimate the import- guns 24; shafted weapons (lances and hal- ance of his collection compared with all berds of all forms) 486; horse-trappings, others. We can safely say that among including saddles and armor, 50; mail 35; private collections it was the first, the only maces and short pole-arms 58; musical one at all approaching it being that of instruments (war-horns, drums) 20; pistols M. Georges Pauilhac in Paris. Its especial 38; swords 286; sword accessories (belts and interest lies in its great number of historical carriers) 34; spurs 53; stirrups 27; shields and decorated pieces, and in its arms of 68; instruments of torture 14; miscellaneous high epoch. In certain regards it is proba- 8—making all together 1,847. Not in- bly first in rank even among national col- cluded among these are several suits of lections. In the series of shafted weapons
armor which Mr. Riggs retains in Paris it contains, I believe, a more representative until they can be put in order; also a num- series than even the collection in Vienna. ber of daggers and detached pieces, about Its horse frontals are noteworthy, few
a hundred in all. The total number of museums excelling it either in the choice objects in the collection is perhaps not far or in the quality of its pieces. And this from 2,500, since in a single catalogue num- is equally true of its shields, helmets, ber there are often two and sometimes a powder flasks, and horse's bits. In show- series of pieces. ing the evolution of armor from the four-
At one time, it appears, Mr. Riggs had teenth century to the eighteenth, the in his collection as many as 8,000 objects, Riggs Collection stands, I think, among but he carefully weeded them out, occa- the first ten collections in the world. In sionally exchanging many commoner pieces no other collection, for example, can one for one of higher class, and sending at see reinforcing plates for brigandines, or various times consignments to the hotel pieces of primitive armor of boiled leather. Drouot for public sale. Nor are there extant more interesting de- Parts of the collection have been placed tails in showing how armor was lined and on exhibition in Paris three times: in 1878 worn. at the Trocadero, where the objects filled a In estimating Mr. Riggs's activities as a hall 20 meters by 12; in i88c) at the Invali- collector, one cannot forget as one of the des, where 3,500 pieces were shown; and in elements of success, as we noted in the 1900 at the Palais des Armees, where there beginning, the rare good fortune he has had were exhibited a thousand richly decorated on many occasions. It is true that he arms. It was at these times that the ex- collected at a time when armor was still traordinary character of Mr. Riggs's col- in the market, but he had ever an extra- lection came to be generally known, and ordinary way of being at the right place at many of the specimens were photographed the right time. Mr. Riggs would, how- or sketched by visitors who, like Dr. ever, be the first one to admit that he had Boheim of Vienna or Dr. Forrer of Strass- not always made the most of his oppor- burg, have since published their notes. tunities. I have heard him declare re- Other objects had, however, been figured peatedly and mournfully that his present earlier in Skelton's book on the Meyrick collection is but the poorer half of the Collection or in various special works such objects which at various times were offered as Asselineau's Armes et Armures or in him. It is clear that he lost a monumental Viollet le Due's Dictionnaire, of which the opportunity when he returned handsomely volume on armor was partly written in Mr. to the Count de Nieuwerkirke the objects Riggs's gallery and with his constant help which he had actually bought from him —as indeed were later the numerous arti- but which he allowed Nieuwerkirke to pass 96 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR into the hands of Sir Richard Wallace. failed to send at once to his home. It so Because Nieuwerkirke was his friend, Mr. happened that the Prince changed his mind, Riggs would not prevent his disposing returned the purchaser his cheque, and of his armor and arms at a much higher resold the armor to the Emperor Napoleon, price than he himself paid or was willing from whose hands it passed into the na-
BREASTPLATE MADE BY FAULUS DE NEGROLl MILAN, MIDDLE OF XVI CENTURY to pay for them, and he thus lost the tional collection nowshown at the Invalides. opportunity of acquiring numerous ob- However, these are details. In the jects of the highest importance—some of minds of all who are interested in this field the best, in fact, now in the Wallace Collec- of art, the Riggs Collection stands as the tion. So, too, Mr. Riggs has justly de- last great collection of arms and armor, plored losing the remainder of the Solty- brought together b>' generous means and a koflf Collection, which he had bought but life's devotion.
97 —
XXWIII
NOT A BANNER BIT A BYZANTINE ALTAR CARPET
HE .Museum latel\ purchased an on the eagle's breast and this at once fur- embroidered banner-shaped nished a more definite means of identifica- "panel." i66 cm. in height, tion. Accordingl\-. photographs were sent T which bears a double-headed to Professor Lspenskx. Conservator of the Museum of St. Petersburg, and from the notes which he generousl\- prepared for
the Museum it appears, in the first place, that the embroidery is not a banner, nor
is it Russian. The inscription in B\zan- tine characters reads: nAVAO- HA- TPIAPX-iHIi KQNITANTINOT inOAEQI) KAI NEAI PQMHI, giving us the indication that the embroider)" dates from the time of a certain Paul, pa- triarch of Constantinople and New Rome. It is evidentl\ an altar cloth, "the clerg>' not being in the habit of emplo> ing such banners." and "most probabU the said cloth was part of a carpet which was spread under the feet of a ministering bishop of the Greek church. Such a carpet goes un- der the name of 'orletz'." Professor L'spensky adds that on account of "the closeness of the ligatures in the inscription
it is very difficult to assign the cloth" to one of the earliest patriarchs bearing the name, e. g. Pauls I-l\', who officiated be- BYZANTINE ORLETZ tween 340 and 784. He finds, however, in the lists a Latin patriarch of Constantinople
eagle, crowned, gra\ in tone, on a back- who ministered in Rome in 1 366-1 372, and " ground of \ellow satin. Received among to him we might assign your piece of cloth
a number of ancient banners, it was looked —the more so as the Latin patriarchs have upon as a procession a! standard, all that was been obliged to celebrate mass according known of its antecedents being that it had to the Greek rite." been sold in 1005 in the hotel Drouot. There was certainly no other Paul be- among the objects of .M. Boy, where it was tween this and the end of the patriarch- described in the sales catalogue as "art ate in 1452. .Additional reasons for russe, X\ II siecle." associating the orletz with this patriarch When received at the Museum and more appear: (i) in the form of the eagle: closely examined, the "banner" grew in it resembles the one dating from the four- in in interest. I ts form, the shape of the crowns, teenth century appearing Kodex 442 and the ornamental inset bits of glass the library of Munich, and, on the other and stone, suggested an early date. .An hand, it is quite unlike earlier eagles; in inscription in what appeared to be ancient fact, the double-headed form is hardly Russian was borne in a circular cartouche earlier than the tenth century. (2) in the 98 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR treatment of details:—the wings are quite one nAAAIOAOrOY. I do not give similar to those appearing in an embroid- this with certainty since monograms may ered dalmatic of the fourteenth century in be read in different ways. But if you con- the sacristy of St. Peter's. sult in the 'Bulletin de Correspondance Further details on the Byzantine inscrip- Hellenique' les rapports de Millet sur tion have now been received by the writer Mistra you may see there similar mono- from his friend Mr. Michel L. Kambanis grams." All of which, it appears, strength- of Athens. In his letter M. Kambanis ens the evidence that our orletz was pre- calls attention to the character B in the pared for the patriarch who flourished in circle as a letter much discussed: "M. P. the middle of the fourteenth century. Lambros had a personal theory and sees It is hardly necessary to add that as an that it means xup£u6oXa. M. J. Svoronos example of the art of the late Byzantine sees there a monogram of the Palaeol- embroiderer this object may be given a
to prominent place if indeed for ogues equivalent BaatXsug | Baa'Aswv." — no more In the same circle the lower character satisfactory reason than that its rivals are at the left "may be read AOYKA, the few, even in national ecclesiastical col- middle one nATPIAPXOT, the right lections.
CENTRAL MEDALLION OF ORLETZ
QQ XXXIX AN ITALIAN BOW AND QUIVER OF THE RENAISSANCE
R. JOHN MARSHALL, writing teristic parts of eastern bows—an outer from Rome, called the attention layer of sinew, a middle of wood, and an of the Museum to an early set inner of horn. But further examination M of archer's arms, including bow, showed that these were not put together arrows, and quiver, which in the Oriental fashion: were not onlv of European then, too, its ornaments origin, but of high epoch, gave proof that the bow believed to be of the was not eastern but Ital- fifteenth century. Arms ian, Decisive in this mat- of this kind are, of course, ter was a coat of arms well known in historical which appeared delicately pictures, but actual speci- painted, below a trans- mens, any in fact more parent plate of horn near than a centur>' old, are one of the tips. This exceedingly rare. No one showed (as Messrs. R. T. took the pains to preserve Nicholand B. M. Donald- them when the\' were son have kindly deter- common, for one reason mined for the writer) that because bows soon lost the objects belonged to, their strength, hence be- or were connected with a came valueless, and for branch of the well-known another, because thc\' were Neapolitan family Capece- rarely ornamented or en- Galeota. riched, to give them in- The quiver^ is cylindri- terest as objects of art. cal in t>pe (about 70 cm. The specimens in ques- long) and fairly well pre- tion, later obtained from served, shaped in calfskin a Roman antiquary, over a wooden button-like proved to be of artistic as terminal, and decorated well as of archaeological with ornaments of leather merit. The bow, espe- applied upon silk velvet, cially, was not only a good red and green. From the one, but richly decorated. foremost of these orna- Each horn tip was de- ments hangs a long fringe veloped into a dragon's of green silk, of which, head, and the fiat face, however, only a few now inverted and be- strands (20 cm. long) re- coming the concave side main. A numberof arrows of the bow, bore a deli- are present, which are cate Italian ornament (see short (62 cm.), made of above), painted with free, larch, light (31 grammes), ITALIAN QUIVER, ABOUT I 5OO strong lines in yellow on with small heads and a dark red ground. The first impression traces of four guide feathers on the neck, was that the arm was Oriental or semi- 'Compare with our quiver the one described Oriental, since its distinctly type was by Baron Potier as dating from the XVli cen- Turkish, and it was built up of the charac- tury in Zeitsch. hist. IVaffenkunde, Vol. IV, p. 83. 100 ;
NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
which is also decorated with color in bands nitely of European origin, are preserved in and lines, in some cases gilded. the Museo Civico Correr in Venice, where
The objects, it was found, had an excel- are hung the arms and trophies of General lent provenance. They were discovered in Morosini of the Peloponnese. the lumber room of a church in northern From a technical standpoint the present Italy (near Brescia?), where they had form- bow is noteworthy. erly hung above an ancient statue of St. It was large for its Sebastian. We infer, accordingly, that the type (about 1.26 m. in objects represented an ex voto of a time of length), excellent in plague, when St. Sebastian would have workmanship, and of
been the saint of recourse. great strength. It is Reference to Italian "documents" of the probable that the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries present arm would, at leaves little doubt as to the dating of a pull of sixty-five kilos, our accessions, A similar bow, showing have thrown a fiight- even the type of ornament on the outer arrow a distance not face, was figured by Benozzo Gozzoli, who less than four hundred died in 1498. A similar type appears in meters. This, at least, one of Carpaccio's paintings, which ante- would have been the \. dated 1520. Still another, of like form, is range of a similar Turk- shown in a Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, ish bow, regarding
by Giacomo da Milano, dated 1 524. There which we haveaccurate
is a fresco in Ferrara in the Palazzo data furnished by Sir Schifanoja in which a similar bow and Ralph Payne-Galway, quiver appear at a date not far from 1480. in the appendix to his A^ We may mention also the bow and quiver work on the Crossbow shown in a fresco by Pinturicchio in Rome, (Longmans, Green, in the Borgia apartments, earlier than 1 5 1 3 1 907) . 1 1 appears from and finally the bow in one of Signorelli's St. the studies, documen- Sebastians, which antedates 1523. The tary and practical, of present objects, therefore, probably date this authority that between the later years of the fifteenth and composite bows of horn the first decades of the sixteenth century. and sinew are by far As far as the writer can learn, the present the best for distance COAT OF ARMS bow and quiver are not only the best but shooting, the English ON END OF the earliest of their kind extant. The only longbow in spite of ITALIAN BOW ones which at all approach them in quality its wide renown having or in period, though these are probably an average range of scarcely more than two later by about a century and are not defi- hundred meters.
TERMINAL ORNAMENT ON ITALIAN BOW
I 01 XL
A GIFT OF JAPANESE SWORD-GUARDS
JAPANESE tsuba, or sabre guards, have lent, and which are particularly acceptable ever appealed to the lover of Eastern since the Museum has had, up to the pres- art. The\' are exquisite in design and ent, no series of tsuba of its own. The only workmanship, beautiful in color and important examples hitherto shown have contour, and picture in miniature a wide been borrowed, e. g., from the collections of range of the artistic histor\' of Japan. Mr. Howard Mansfield and Mr, Malcolm That the\' have ever been numerous—and MacMartin. this is not always a trial to an earnest col- The present donation, then, forms a lector—one can well understand, for in the comfortable foundation for the study of a feudal da\ s of Japan each member of the highl\' specialized branch of Japanese art. militar}' class carried his familiar two It enables a visitor to appreciate the work swords, and for each sword he had a choice of some of the best schools or families of of tsuba, rarelx' less than a dozen and some- tsuba artists, including Kaneiye, Goto, times even hundreds, which could be Miochin, Tetsuwo, L'metada, Soten, Sho- changed to vary the appearance of his ami, and Kinai, and it gives many of the treasured blades from day to da\', or month varieties of guards which each collector to month. If, then, we estimate that comes to recognize. Thus it furnishes there were two millions of samurai in 1876, types of sculptured guards in iron, copper, when prime-minister Sanjo signed the and various bronzes. It includes a series decree forbidding the carr\ing of swords, we of guards incrusted with designs in other may assume that tens of millions of sword- metals, as bronze on steel, or silver on guards came sooner or later into trade. It bronze. As an instance of the former, is certainly a fact that about 1880 the mar- we recall a small tsuba in the st\ie of the kets of all "curio "-loving countries were first Nishigaki master, Kanshiro Yoshi- flooded with sword-guards, and that ne\er hiro (1613-93). The collection contains before or since have such admirable speci- a number of guards in which the figures mens, in an\" number at least, found their or patterns are inset or inlaid, rather than way out of Japan. incrusted, notabl\' several with inlays of On the other hand, it must not be sup- pewter in the style of the fourteenth or posed that Japanese gentlemen ceased in a fifteenth centurw It also illustrates moment to prize an ancestral sword-guard, pierced guards in great variety: some in when the\' had no longer the need of the fashion of four centuries ago when the wearing swords. It was merel\' that at decoration was carried out broadly, some this time the\' revised their collections, and in the st\lc of the sixteenth and seventeenth cast out those tsuba to which the\' were centuries when perforations became so least attached. In the majoritv of cases numerous and intricate as to transform a in which the\' gave up a costl\' specimen, tsuba into a disk of interlacing fibres, as in it appeared to be the latest or newest which the work of the artists who followed the found its wa\' to a shop in K\oto or Tok\o. Chinese manner. Other guards exemplify It was the feeling, doubtless, that the the work of essentiall\' modern schools. newer sword-guards were of higher grade There are a number showing a background which led Mrs. Adrian H. Joline to special- of delicate stippling which the Japanese ize in her collecting. In the eighty odd ex- called "nanako" (a pattern suggested by amples which she has just presented to the the texture of fish roe), and which was in Museum one finds t\pes which are excel- vogue in the late eighteenth and early
102 ^ . ..,„-^„^
A .
^HmKBs^^^^Bk \i • SWORD-GUARD IN THE STYLE OF SWORD-GUARD WITH PIERCED DECORATION KANSHIRO YOSHIHIRO (1613-Q3) IN CHINESE STYLE. XVHI CENTURY
S3^J t'"'''' SWORD-GUARD BV TAKECHIKA SWORD-GUARD WITH NANAKO ABOUT 1850 BACKGROUND, DATED 182Q THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART nineteenth century. One of these is a storm-monster appears in bold relief, "composite" guard, the figures which it emerging from a swirl of waves. We bears in relief having been executed by note, fmally, one of the newest guards three different artists, Koran, Ichijo, and (dated 1861), an excellent example of the Tojo: its theme is the varying beauties fine-spun taste in sword mounting at the of spring, summer, and autum,n, the first time of the breaking down of the Toku- t\pified by fireflies, the second by butter- gawa shogunate. In this tsuba the back- flies, the third by a dragon fl\'. Another ground is incised with undulating lines,
"nanako" guard bears the date 1829 and representing low waves, and it is surcharged is decorated with a dragon fmely sculp- with crests of the daimyo Arima. Note- tured in gold bronze. We ma\' refer also worthy m this specimen is the decadent to a dragon tsuba by Takechika, of even treatment of its margin, which is overlaid later date—about 1850— which is an ad- b\' the same crests moulded as though mirable specimen of its kind: here the flexible around the rim of the guard.
104 XLI
THE OPENING OF THE WILLIAM H. RIGGS COLLECTION OF ARMOR
opening of the Riggs Col- Riggs formally announced his great gift THElection of European Arms and to the Trustees, a year ago last May, he Armor has now been definitely made the special request that his collection fixed for the evening of Monday, should not be exhibited by itself, but should January 25, when the Trustees of the Mu- be amalgamated with the other objects of
MAIN ARMOR HALL seum will give a reception, with music, to the same character in the Museum, saying members and their friends. Thereafter the that his purpose in forming the collection collection will be permanently open to the had been the education of the American public in the spacious halls and galleries public in a branch of European art which which were especially designed for it and was little known or appreciated in our for the other arms and armor, both Euro- country, and that this educational purpose pean and Oriental, which constitute this could be properly fulfilled only b\' keeping department of the Museum. When Mr. to a strictly chronological arrangement of
105 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART all the material illustrating the subject, ens the imagination to a realizing sense of from whatever sources the Museum had one important phase of life in the Middle acquired it. .\ges and the Renaissance. Upon examin- In arranging the collection Dr. Bashford ing the objects in detail, they will find a Dean, the Curator of the department, has wealth of beauty of design and decoration followed this magnanimous request in the which will convince them that the artistic spirit in which it was conceived. Conse- skill and labor expended upon the execution quently the pieces from the Dmo and Ellis of a cup, an ivory, or a bronze were fully Collections, as well as those which have matched by the makers of arms and armor, been acquired individually, have been and that their products are not to be over- placed among the Riggs specimens in pro- looked in the study and enjoyment of the per historical sequence, the labels indicating fine arts. The armorers ranked high the source from which each was derived, among the craftsmen of their da\'; and with the result that the Museum is now able hereafter, thanks to Mr. Riggs. one need to show as a unit a collection of European not go farther than our own museum to arms and armor which will rank among appreciate how thoroughl\- their reputation the most important in the world, and one was deserved. which could not be duplicated toda\- at Edward Robinson any price, since examples of the high quality represented in it are no longer to be found The enormous amount of work involved outside of the great royal and public col- in the receipt and preparation for exhibition lections of Europe. of the William H. Riggs Collection, great This collection occupies the large court in itself, but largel\' increased by the task beyond the Egyptian galleries, at the of assembling with it the other collections northern end of the building, directl\' of armor belonging to the Museum, has under the galleries in which the Morgan been completed; and the remarkable dis- Collection is exhibited, together with the play was opened to the members and colonnade surrounding it, a hall one hun- their friends on Monday evening, Januar\' dred feet long be\'ond, and a smaller room 25th. in the corner, roughly speaking, about Following the recent custom at recep- 18,000 square feet of floor-space in all. tions, the guests were received in the main In addition, two galleries opening from the Fifth Avenue Hall, by the First Vice-Pres- eastern side of the court are devoted to the ident, Joseph H. Choate, a committee of collections of Oriental armor, one to that of the Trustees, Messrs. Peters, Mansfield, Japan, and the other to those of Persia and Walters, and Macy, Mr. Karrick Riggs, a India. nephew of the donor, and the Director. Some account of the Riggs Collection, Music was furnished b\ members of the and of Mr. Riggs's experiences in forming New York Symphony Orchestra under the it, was given in the Bulletin of March, leadership of David Mannes. 1 9 14, pp. 66-74, and as it is fully described The following gentlemen were invited to in the Handbook prepared b>' Dr. Dean, to assist the curator, Bashford Dean, in show- be issued at the time of the opening, details ing the collections: Clarence H. Mackay, need not be entered into here. It ma\' George C. Stone, F. G. Macomber, .Alex- safely be predicted, however, that the exhi- ander M. Welch, .Albert Gallatin, Howland bition will come as a delightful surprise and Pell, Lawrason Riggs, T. J. Oakle>- Rhine- revelation to many, and that its attrac- lander, Ambrose Monell, Edward Hubbard tiveness will be by no means confined to Litchfield, and William B. Osgood Field. those who have been students of armor as such. People who are not, or who have hitherto thought they were not, interested in this subject will certainly be impressed Simultaneousl>' with the opening of the with the dramatic qualit\- of the displa\' as new galleries containing the William H. a whole, and the manner in which it quick- Riggs Collection and the other collections of 106 ^ oi 5: s O < < S >- u. oi < < Qi Ui D CD S 4. u < fTl < S < CL, ""> < C/1 < u. X X o > oa S -J o < z X Z H z ^ »-^ ^^ < Q fti o Q u. z O ^
H u. to u [11 <
(o\ THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART arms and armor, a Handbook descriptive of Arms and Armor of the Bronze Age and the armor was issued.^ This includes the Classical Antiquity; V. The Early Cen- armor of the Far and Near East (Japanese, turies of the Christian Era; VI. Chain- Arab, Turkish, Persian, and Indian), as well Mail and Mediaeval Armor; VII. The as that of Europe from the earliest examples Period of Transition from Chain-Mail to to that of the late eighteenth century. It Plate-Armor (1200- 1400); VIII. The Period undertakes no detailed description of indi- of Plate-Armor and Fire-Arms (1400- 1780); vidual pieces, but treats the subject from an IX. Questions about Armor: Its Weight historical point of view, illustrating the de- and Size; X. Japanese Arms and Armor; velopment of arms and armor by reference XI. Arms and Armor of the East: Arab to objects in the Museum collection. Some (Saracenic), Turkish, Persian, Indian, idea of the scope and character of the Hand- Chinese. Appended to the Handbook is a book may be obtained from the following list of personages and families whose arms, list of its chapters: I. Introduction; II. personal or state, are here represented. The Present Collection and Its Arrange- The length of this is in itself an evidence of ment; HI. Earliest Arms and Armor; IV the rare historical importance of the collec- tion. The numerous half-tone illustrations 1 and Armor, European and Handbook of Arms reveal something of the beauty of decora- Oriental, including the William H. Riggs Col- tion and artistic workmanship that charac- lection, New York, January, 191 5. (XVI) terize armor. 161 [i] pp. 65 plates. Octavo.
108 a
XLI AN ARMORER'S WORKSHOP
HE visitor to the Riggs gallery, Gothic woodwork,^ one may now look at examining a suit of ancient ar- the restoration of an ancient work-bench.
mor, is apt to think rather of the On one side of it is a bench-vise: this dates T beauty of the object than of the from the early seventeenth century and is
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmammm-
"armorer's workshop," riggs gallery
labor and skill of the artist who made it. of North Italian workmanship, boldl>' The armorer, it is clear, encountered many- decorated with foliation and mascaron— sided mechanical difficulties in handling vise which might have been used by an his "medium": he could not model steel artist who prepared the locks and mount- with the same nicety and fluency with ings of the enriched pistols and harque- which a brother artist used his paint, clay, buses shown in neighboring cases. Here, wax, wood, silver, or gold. Accordingly, too, are numerous anvil-like "stakes" with a view to making clearer the art of which were held in sockets in the bench or armor-making, it has seemed worth while to show to the general visitor some of the ^The rear of the courtyard of an ancient house at Abbeville (early sixteenth century), showing special implements or instruments which a door and the front of a stairway: also some the armorer employed, and on the west side original panels. The woodwork of the bench is of the Riggs gallery, framed in splendid modern. lOQ THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART when of greater size were thrust into a tools, it may be remarked, are in many heavy block nearby. Some of these in our cases old, some of them dating from the restoration are fitted in a block which is time when armor was made for actual known to have served for several genera- service. The most important object in tions of armorers. Such stakes show this little collection is an anvil, richly surfaces sometimes flattened, sometimes wrought, which dates from the sixteenth rounded, sometimes long and developed as century— if not earlier. It is probably of prongs,—shapes which were required in the Italian workmanship and, with the neigh- varying processes of modeling plates of boring bench-vise, has been borrowed for our present purpose from the collection of
Ambrose Monell of Tuxedo. The anvil is boldly modeled, wrought in iron, its upper
surface faced with steel; its base is octan- gular, ornamented with beveled mould- ings; its sides are developed in rounded arches, partly by welding in position masses of iron, partly by strenuous chiseling. The
quality of the object suggests that it was used for work of the costliest character, that gold or silver may have been beaten upon it; but its large size, massive con- struction, and roughly worn and hammered
surface indicate altogether that it could not have belonged to a goldsmith. We know, moreover, that anvils of similar shape have been pictured for iron-workers. Thus, one of them appears in a portrait by Hans Memling in the Hopital Saint Jean in Bruges and two others were painted by Breughel in his X'ulcan's Forge. So we justly conclude that the present object with its elaborate ornamentation could have been used only by an iron-worker and an iron-worker of quality—which means, in all ancient rules, an armorer. In addition to anvil, vise, and stakes the visitor sees in our workshop a rack of im- plements of different sizes and kinds. VISE, NORTH ITALIAN There are hammers of various forms which LENT BY AMBROSE MONELL were used for spreading metal or drawing it together during the various operations steel into subtle curves. Some of the of making armor. Some of our specimens stakes, it appears, were made to pene- date from the seventeenth and eighteenth trate ridges and cavities, as within the centuries and are part of the Klein-Tachaux crests of helmets; others were arranged to Collection which the Museum acquired a develop the cylindrical elements of armor few years ago. It may be remarked that for arms and legs. Near the present stakes an armorer used in his calling hammers of there are exhibited files, punches, and many kinds, a score of types being known, chisels, and patterns for various plates of so that an ancient outfit which included armor; also matrices by means of which examples of various weights of these dif- borders were rolled over or pressed into the ferent types might readily have in it a forms of roping which one sees so frequently hundred, or even two hundred hammers. in armor of the sixteenth century. These In the second row of the rack appear im-
I 10 —
NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
plements of several sorts. Among these are in small communities, were not far apart armorers' pincers, some of them intended in their craft. for cutting. One of these is a ponderous The Gothic woodwork which has been affair, beautifully wrought and provided noted above as a frame for the armorers' with a screw-driver at the end of an arm. implements, has, in passing, a second func- There are also calipers, punches for leather, tion. It incloses, visible through the clippers for metal plates, a die for cutting doorway, many modern forgeries of armor. screws, and an ancient hack-saw—the last These may here be examined, close to the dating not later than the seventeenth cases containing authentic objects, yet kept century. At one end of this improvised apart from them in an inconspicuous limbo workshop there is hung an armorer's cer- of their own. The false pieces exhibited tificate, a document dating from the eigh- date mainly from the middle of the nine- teenth century, which showed that a certain teenth century: some of them are as early Christian Wagner was oificially recognized as 1820-30; others are quite recent meme as a member of the guild of armorers and chaudes. as a French expert put it. It may could be recommended to do a certain be explained that the present collection quality of work; he was "true, hard- aims to give examples of the work of the working, quiet, and law-abiding." This best-known copyists and counterfeiters, so was issued by the guild at Dresden. On that the student may conveniently learn to the wall near this certificate is a small distinguish the kind of objects which are statue of St. Eloi, patron of hammer- usually found in the shops, and not in- workers. He is here represented shoeing frequently, alas, in museums! The pre- the horse's foot which he had deliberately sent collection is apparently unique, not chopped from the living beast. The crea- as a collection, of course, for several pri- ture, it appears, had been in a furious vate collections include a ten times more temper, and otherwise "possessed of a costly series, but as an out-and-out gather- devil," so the saint took this cautious means ing of forgeries, with names of makers, of accomplishing his work, later performing places, and approximate dates—notes, by a miracle in restoring the leg to its place! the way, which have proved by no means On either side of this little fifteenth-century easy to gather, since the authors of such figure are hung horseshoeing irons used by objects are not in the habit of signing their sixteenth and seventeenth-century smiths, work and are otherwise averse to publicit}'. which are not inappropriate in their place, B ut the subject of forgeries is a special one and since armorers and blacksmiths, especiall\' mav later be made the theme of an article.
ANVIL, ITALIAN, XVI CHNTURY LENT BY AMBROSE MONELL
I I I —
STIRRUP ATTRIBUTED TO DIANE DE POITIERS RIGGS COLLECTION
XLIII
DIANE'S STIRRUPi
> ROM graceful pointed toe to rounded heel, Despite the dust of \ears does romance cling To this small piece of metal that belonged F To her who was the ruler of a king. Graven and pierced as if the armorer
In pride had fashioned it most lovingly, And cut above the letters intertwined Deep through the iron sole, a fleur-de-lis. Wearing her black and white, a kingly hand Mayhap has held her stirrup, bending low To lift her in the saddle carefull\' When rode she in the woods of Chenonceau, A-hunting like her namesake goddess fleet, The fleur-de-lis of France beneath her feet. ESTELLE LeaSK.
^This sonnet was written in the Riggs Armor Gallery by a visitor who had just examined a stirrup of Diane de Poitiers.
I 12 —
XLIV AN EXPLANATORY LABEL FOR HELMETS
MUSEUM, like a person, is apt imagine. And he is confused by dissoci- to have special ideas in matters ated objects: he feels satisfied if what he of labeling. In many instances sees in the cases can be brought together A labels give little more than a in his mind as belonging to a plan. He name, some museums believing that the knows that kinds and styles grade into one objects should speak for themselves. another and he has a notion that the Other museums, sympathizing with Pro- first form begat the second, perhaps in a
fessor G. Brown Goode, prepare labels vaguely evolutional way. Now I believe which give information to the hungry—in that this is a widespread trait or state of large portions. Either extreme has evi- mind which can be taken into account in dently its good and bad features. Short our label-writing. In this direction it
labels irritate an intelligent reader by tell- seems at the outset, I admit, unpromising ing him that a spade is a spade, and a really to prepare labels which deal with general long label, unless written in a masterly way, questions, say in the matter of evolution;^
is avoided by nearly every one; for, sooth but if this can be done successfully, the re-
to say, an outsider does not often come to a turn is worth the time and trouble it costs.
museum with a fixed intention of learning For instance, I am inclined to believe that at any cost. He likes, rather, to "nibble" an interesting and very instructive diagram and he is apt soon to get tired. If, there- might appear in an exhibition of ancient fore, a curator wishes to fmd how his labels furniture to show the changes which have are read and how they could be bettered, he taken place during the centuries in so famil- should hover about his own cases and lis- iar an object as a chair; or that in a gallery ten to what his callers say to one another of ancient sculpture diagrams might at- reversing his manners (and bruising his tractively show the way in which the figure emotions sometimes) for the good of his changed its mode of drapery during diifer- department! ent centuries; or that picture-labels can
There is no question that long labels will point out that such objects as watches or sometimes be read; but one hardly knows clocks developed during the past three or beforehand just which objects are the most four centuries in an orderly sequence; or
attractive. The ones which you and 1 that in the hall of arms and armor diagrams would select are often by no means those can indicate that swords, daggers, or pole- which appeal to the general public. To arms changed their shapes and structures
such a degree is this true that even the in the course of time in regular progression. mildest curator may decide to write his ^ Evidently not strictly to be compared with labels as he is convinced they ought to be the evolution of living beings, since these pass written, "in the sight of God," and let their changes along from parent to offspring,
the public enjoy them or not. 1 have while "evolution" in objects represents only often noticed that people will be drawn sequences in style. The latter kind of trans- formation, however, affords close analogies with to a long label if there is a picture in it, the former and in some cases stops httle short of a diagram, large complicated, is and and true evolution—as when objects represent the sometimes appreciated by visitors whose work of the brains and hands of generations of externals do not suggest studious habits. the same family of artists— for here the product of organisms can be measured in terms of parent In a general way, 1 have come to the con- and offspring, somewhat in the fashion that the clusion that a visitor likes to see the reasons secretions of gland might be measured, a process for things—more often indeed than many which, all will admit, concerns true evolution in THE METROPOLITAN MUSELM OF ART
In the field of armor let us take a concrete head-piece which was sometimes inclosed example—the way in which the various in a second helmet which fitted loosely over forms of helmets arose from simpler begin- the head like a great inverted pot, the so- nings. called leaiime, which was usuall\' carried
In such a label, on page 1 5, we may trace at the saddle-bow and laced in place over 1 the transformations which took place in the helmeted head only when the knight helmets of usual form from early times went into the melee. This supplementar\" down to 1700. In the diagram, one calls t\pe, often pictured in documents dating attention first of all to the nature of the just before and just after the year 1300, object and its characteristic parts: it thus appears to have been difficult to fix in its includes a picture of a well-developed hel- right position; if it received a heavy blow, met showing such structures as a bowl, it ran the risk of becoming displaced and crest, visor, ventail, chin guard, and neck- was thereupon worse than useless, for it plates. The remainder of the label would blindfolded the wearer, since its e\e-slit illustrate the wa\' in which these structures was no longer opposite the eye. The weak came into being. We ma\- look over the feature of this head-piece was evidently the pictures of the various helmets and see at a complicated way in which it was laced in glance that the oldest part was the bowl, or place. Such a helmet we should call in timbre, that the visor was next in point of biological jargon "highl\' specialized" (like age, and that the ventail, chin guard, and a beast whose teeth are suited only for a neck-piece were of later origin. The label special kind of food), and like a highly should, obviously, speak for itself: none the specialized animal could not long survive less, it shows so broadly the history of the (for when the special kind of food gave out, helmet that one is tempted to explain it in the animal which could live onl\- on that detail. food perished). Hence we are not surprised We notice, in the first place, that the to find that the period of usefulness of this label suggests the pictures in a zoological heaume was brief, and that a new form of or geological handbook, where one traces defence took its place. the genealogy of horses, shells, or fishes. This new fashion developed in the four- The "geological horizons" are in this case teenth centur\' from a close-fitting skull- marked off horizontally as centuries—thus cap or basinet, and a series of forms of the lowest horizon in the present figure is basinets dating between 1300 and 1400 about the time of the dispersal of the Euro- indicates a tendency for the head-piece to pean nations, say A. D. 600.^ .Another become taller and revert somewhat to the level would be represented by the \ear fashion of the ancient Spangenhelm. It 1000, others would be 1300, 1400, 1500, and was, however, an improvement upon the
1600. .\nd upon this chronological scaffold- older t\pe, inasmuch as it had adjustments ing helmets are shown "evolving." Thus, for a hood or cape of chain mail which pro- according to our diagram the usual type of tected the chin, neck, and upper shoulders. an earl\' European helmet was a "Spangen- It had also a face-guard, formed as a mask helm," dome-shaped, made up of small of iron which in early basinets swung down pieces of iron. From this primitive form in place from the forehead but in later ones arose the Norman helmet of about 1000. was hinged at the side. In Northern Italy This was merel\' a Spangenhelm made up the best t\pe of basinet next replaced or of fewer, larger pieces, and with an innova- copied the camail in the downgrowth of tion in the form of a projecting flange or the sides of the basinet. This result, how- nasal guard. The next stage in develop- ever, was accomplished onl\' as a tour de ment produced a domed casque in a single force on the part of the late fourteenth- piece with a reduced nasal guard. century armorer— in fact, today, after the Another stage evolved a tight-fitting accumulated experience of over four hun- skull-cap or primitive basinet. It was this dred years in metal-working, it would be difficult to find an artist who could copy ^The histOHr' of the helmet in times earlier than this will be summarized in a separate label. such a head-piece in a single piece of steel.
114 IRON HAT -LINING
/^^ P/KEMAJ4S '- '^ I i' POT
BOWL
< TIMBRE)
PLUME HOLDER
NECK GUARD (COLLETIN)
THE PARTS OF A HELMET HELMETS THEIR KINDS AND DEVELOPMENT DURING SPANGENHELM THE CENTURIES OOO A-O. A.Z) 600 —
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
This basinet, known as the Aquilegian, was shown in the diagram. The latest of its easily the culminating point in this series of type was a broad-brimmed hat of steel early casques. On another line, however, which arose from a simpler form with a arose a curious blunt-nosed basinet, heavily sloping brim, which in turn arose from a formed, having wide neck plates and a wide, longish head-piece, i. e., one still hav- separately modeled chin. This arose about ing radial symmetry. The earliest chapel 1400 and was in many respects so perfect was depressed laterally and inclosed the a closed helmet that we wonder why it was sides of the head. not made the point of divergence for types An equally interesting evolutionary series which appeared only at a much later were the salades which developed extreme period. In a word, it must have had in its bilateral symmetry. At first they were structure some fundamental defect which produced backward so as to cover the nape prevented the armorer of the day from con- of the neck. Later they developed in the tinuing its use. Certainly it was heavy brow region a slot through which the and unwieldy. It was set down over the wearer could see. In the next stage there head like a heaume and was a cage for the appeared a separate plate which rotated in wearer's head rather than a helmet: it such a way as to form a visor. The latest could not be satisfactorily fastened in posi- forms of this head-piece had extremely long tion, its chin was immobile, and altogether neck guards which were flexible and formed it was too highly specialized long to survive. of separate pieces, so that the wearer could It was again a simpler form, as explained bend his head far backward. in the diagram, which became the point of Equally clear is the origin of barbutes. divergence for various forms of helmets. These were hood-like head-pieces developed Thus the basinet which developed a neck from a single piece of metal, which came to guard formed of a separate piece seems to inclose the face more and more perfectly, be the "ancestor"of a new line of heaumes, and even developed a nose guard. This or heavy tilting head-pieces, which do not last type of head-piece is interesting, since appear to be related to the ones which, as it resembles the most perfect helmet known we noted, occurred about the year 1300. in classical antiquity, the "Corinthian
The later heaumes are shown in the dia- casque" of the Greeks. While it is possible gram in four examples in which, decade that the most complete barbute may have after decade, the head-piece increased in arisen during the Renaissance as a result of size and was more and more perfectly the widespread study of classical anti- adapted to its use. Thus this heaume quities, it is more probable, I think, that it came to be locked down to the breastplate had an entirely independent origin —a case and back-plate and could be used onl\' of "parallelism," as the zoologist says, when the wearer held his head in a certain when he contrasts the wing of the bat and position, as in bending forward in the sad- the wing of the bird, i. e., things similar dle when tilting. Such a head-piece led to in form and use but different in mode of no further evolution. origin. It was a simpler form which once again It will be seen that all of these head- must be sought as the "progenitor" of vari- pieces—chapels, salades, and barbutes ous types. Thus it was a small head-piece were faulty in so far as they have no well- having a short neck guard not in a separate attached chin defenses. As hat-shaped piece but arising from the timbre, which head-pieces they could not be held securely seems to have been the basal form of all on the head. These objections were first the later kinds of head-pieces. In one line overcome in the armet, as shown in the dia-
it gave rise to the chapels de jer, in another gram. There was first developed (about line to the barbides, in still another to the 1450) the armet a rondelle— in many ways salades, and, finally, most important, to the the most beautiful helmet which the art of
closed helmet which first appeared toward the armorer ever devised. It is unlike
the middle of the fifteenth century. later armets and it is even doubtful whether
The origin of the chapel-de-fer is clearly it belongs at all in the main line of their
16 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
"descent." The armet a rondelle was really mail; and they were provided with both a barbute in which the cheek-pieces grew chin-piece and visorwhich not only "fitted," so wide that for convenience they became but were more conveniently articulated, hinged to the top of the helmet, and closed for both rotated from the same pivot. below over a peg on the point of the chin. Clearly, therefore, this casque was easier to The visor, too, was archaic: it was the visor fix in place or to take off. At this time, of a basinet but much reduced in size, still too, fluted surfaces appeared in the metal retaining, however, the basinet's curious to make the bowl of the head-piece rela- hinge-like arrangement at the side. The tively lighter and stronger. Some of these neck region of this armet was protected by helmets even had close-fitting necks which a camail, somewhat as in the earlier basinet, were so accurately moulded around the
and it had at its back a disk, or rondelle, border of the neck-armor that they allowed attached like a mushroom to a short, stout the head-piece to rotate in a "track." stalk, which appears to have been used The next stage in the development of the
first as a protector for the fastening of the armet produced separate visors, that is to neck-gear of chain-mail and later was re- say, the upper half of the earlier visor be-
tained as an ornament. It is doubtful, I came a separate piece but rotated always say, whether this kind of armet gave rise on the same pivot. Then arose various to the later armets as shown in the present forms of crests and neck-gear, as shown in diagram. It had already become too the figure. highly "specialized" in its attachment to On the one hand, burganets arose from the cape of chain-mail, as well as in its ron- armets developing a visor-like brim, like delle and its enormous cheek-flaps. the peak of a cap. In late burganets The origin of the later armets can, there- (siege-pieces) this peak, or umbril, disap-
fore, I believe, be better understood in the pears: in earlier burganets which were de- diagram by taking as a starting-point the signed for light use the chin region or bevor curious head-piece shown as arising from disappears, or is replaced by a demountable the visored salades. This primitive armet chin-guard {buffe). In these light bur- was a salade which was deep in shape and ganets formal ear-tabs come to replace the closely modeled to the head. Its visor ex- heavier defenses of the side of the head. tended below the chin and was provided Also neck-guards, which were short in with breathing apertures which suggest earlier types, became lengthened out^ crudely the lips of the wearer. The neck laminated, and flaring as in the Cromwell- region had already been made flexible by ian "lobster tail" burganets. And in the the appearance of laminae such as one last member of the series the neck-guard finds in late forms of salades. If we start either became rudimentary, as in the curi- with this form, the development of the var- ous spider helmet, or else was flattened out ious types of head-pieces of the sixteenth in a single heavy plate. Morions were and seventeenth centuries can now easily clearly the derivatives of burganets, and be traced. From it arose a long series of cabassets were shortened-up morions in closed helmets, burganets, morions, cabas- which the crescentic brow-and-neck guard sets, iron hats, and, as the latest and most was reduced to a short, flat brim. In this degenerate form of the helmet, a small head-piece the crest or comb disappeared, metal hat-lining. after passing through a series of decadent Studying some of these helmets in detail, forms. The latest efi"ective helmets were we find that about the year 1500 splendid pikemen's pots and iron hats; from them armets, or helmets, were developed: they descended, in a degenerate line, iron hat- were more perfect "functionally" than linings. In these the earliest were solids even the armet-k-rondelle: thus, their shaped to the crown of a felt hat. They crown or timbre was complete, modeled were next made lighter, sometimes by hav- closely to the entire cranium; they re- ing holes cut in them, and later they became quired no straps or laces to keep them in lighter still by being built up, basket fash-
place : they needed no neck defense of chain ion, of interlaced iron strips. In the last
117 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART form of all they were formed as a series of the}' could be folded up into a single piece bands so articulated that, when not in use, or block and thrust into the owner's pocket.
BURGANET ATTRIBUTED TO HENRI II, ABOUT I55O DE DINO COLLECTION
118 XLV
HISTORICAL FAN, WAR-HAT, AND GUN FROM JAPAN
CCADIO HEARN has made us Baron Senke's interpreter, I was later given familiar with Matsue, a remote the opportunity to see interesting objects Japanese town in the province which were not the property of the tem-
of Izumo lying against Korea; ple—and some of these I acquired. for near this town (at Kizuki) lived the Among them was an historical gun, man-who-was-a-god, directly descended together with a fan and a war-hat^ which from the Shinto deity who some twenty- had belonged in a branch of the Tokugawa five centuries ago inhabited this spot when family which ruled Matsue in the seven- the ancestor of the present emperor de- teenth century. These objects are perhaps scended upon earth and made his habita- of sufficient interest from an artistic view- tion in Japan. On this occasion the point to merit the present note. Shinto god of Matsue did not hesitate to The war-hat is simple in form (fig. 2), admit an invading emperor and give him well preserved, covered with black lacquer
fair words and favor. In fact, it was on of the best quality, and bearing in gold account of this "tactful recognition" that the arms of the Tokugawa family. Its he was patronized by the emperor and inner side is decorated with gold lacquer, appointed regent in that part of the earth. and on its primitive lining is an old inscrip- Since then, from father to son, his descend- tion, in rather unclerkly hand, stating
ants have been the spiritual rulers of that it belonged to "Daimyo of Matsue, Matsue, and as pontiffs their home has Un-in Tai-shu, Matsudaira Dewa-no-Kami ever been in the temple. Naomasa. Major General Sho 4 rank," and
When I went to Matsue in 1905 I had a giving also a date, "third month, Kwany^
particular reason to visit the temple, for 15, the year of the Tiger [=1638]" (fig. 3). in its treasury was a suit of precious armor The war fan, which was used as a com- —donated, ex voto, by the shogun Ashikaga mander's truncheon, is richly lacquered,
Takauji—and this I wished to examine its borders of iron damaskeened in silver minutely and to photograph. Hence it (fig. 4). Its handle bears the same name, was clear that I should meet and ask the "Naomasa"; and on its sides, written with permission of the arch-custodian, the man- lacquer in red characters on a lighter
who-was-a-god. This 1 found 1 could ground of red, are poetical maxims, suited readily do since Baron Senke, who was then to a commander's fan. On the obverse the head of the family, was a friend of my appears: "My power is unseen like the friend Dean Kakichi Mitsukuri of the mystery of the universe, and my action is Science College of Tokyo. So, thanks to a as the bolt from heaven"; on the reverse,
cordial letter, I had the honor of being given "In repose I am as stable as a mountain
a personal interview. I shall always re- and still as the deep forest, yet in time
member the ancient shrine where by the of action I sear like living flame." The side of Danshakii Senke I worshiped in Chinese characters are- here well written, Japanese fashion and had my hands puri- suggesting the love for writing, as an art
fied in holy water before 1 was permitted to in itself, which for over two thousand examine the wonderful fourteenth-century years people of the East have cherished,
armor. All of this, I confess, seems wide of where a beautiful inscription is given equal the present mark. It so happened, how- rank with a beautiful painting.
ever, that through the local schoolmaster, a ^These were given to the Metropolitan Mu- young man who stood nearby and acted as seum in 1914.
I It) THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Who was the daimyo Naomasa here family treasures from the time when they mentioned? A review of the history of were given to an ancestor by Naomasa^ the Tokugawa family shows that he was a as a personal keepsake. grandson of lyeyasu, famous head of a The third object is the most important. famous family which for two and a half It is a gun (fig. i) which dates from the centuries ruled Japan with a feudal system late sixteenth century and, it is stated, more elaborate and successful than the was a famil\- treasure of the same Daimyo world had ever known. Naomasa <, 1600- of Matsue: its inscription reads Chosen; 1666) was the fourth child of Hideyasu, Horio Taiio: Kampaku Taiko, Hairio: who was the elder brother of the second L'n-in foshu. This ma\- be translated:
FIG. I. GLN PRESENTED BV HIDEVOSHl TO HORIO TAITO
( 1592-98
FIG. 2. CEREMONIAL HAT IJINGASa) OF NAOMASA, DAIMVO OF MATSUE
Shogun, Hidetada; he became the ruler [From] Korea, [this gun to] Horio^Taito, a of the province of Izumo, a fairly rich fief gift from Kampaku Taiko, [to] the Daimyo (revenue reckoned as 186,000 koku, or of Matsue. Our, gun, therefore, concerns bales-of-rice, a koku weighing 350 pounds), the famous Kampaku Taiko,- Hideyoshi, in 1638; and he was the ancestor of the the "Japanese Napoleon" whoj^invaded .Matsudeira branch of the family which Korea in 1592, became prominent in middle and later Was it, then, a relic of the Korean cam-
Tokugawa times. The present hat and paign, or was it among the presents given fan were said to have been preserved in a by Taiko to his victorious general on his samurai household in or near .Matsue as return from the front? We know that
^In his Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Laf- tells of Naomasa's consternation when he in- cadio Hearn has given several interesting refer- vaded the Holy of holies at Kizuki and saw the ences to Naomasa (especially in \'ol. II, pp. relic turn bodily into the writhing coils of a
621-624): he refers to him as the patron saint huge dragon I of Rakusan temple, describes the procession -The writer's friend in Kyoto, .Mr. K. .Makino, when his miya (memorial etfig>') was carried in a letter just received, states that the use of the from the temple to the castle of Maisue, and character Ko in Taiko—which signifies princely 120 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
Horio Taito^ was one of the best officers of European gun-stock—the present Japanese Hideyoshi and high in his favor: like the stock^ holding the barrel in position by latter he was parvenu: he appeared in his means of external loops of metal. Another service in 1573 when a youth of sixteen feature which suggests a foreign origin for and was soon given a very small holding the barrel is the fact that part of the orna- (150 koku) at Nagahama: then he saw mentation, that showing a wave pattern, is the fall of Nobunaga (Hideyoshi's feudal applied, instead of having been chiseled chief) and the stormy rise of his master. directly on the barrel—the barrel was al- And his fortunes rose with Taiko's: he had ready too thin to warrant this treatment, in time holdings in Harima (1,500 koku), even when made of the strong namhan Tamba (3,500), Takahama (20,000), and tetsu (foreign iron) which already was
Sawayama castle (40,000). The last was highly prized in Japan. I may add that
an important advancement; it bore with the mountings of the gun are richly gilded
it the title Taito and the rank J u 5 of second a mercure. rank—which may tell little to you or to In summing up the findings upon the me, but which meant much to the feudal foregoing objects, one is inclined, after the mind of Japan. Next, he was given the castle of Hamamatsii (which increased his revenue by half). Then came the extra- ordinary Korean campaign, which inspired the Japanese and unified them, in 1598, ,^t%^ the year Hideyoshi died, Horio Taito was among the highest officials in Japan: he was one of the three second secretaries of his master and was the steward of prac-
tically all of Hideyoshi's provinces. It is clear that he was highly esteemed in the %'£ empire; for lyeyasii when he became sho- gun increased his income and gave him at once the province Yechizen and soon (i 599) fi the rich fief of Izumo (240,000 koku) and the Oki islands. Now it was that he re- tired to Matsue and built (1603) the great castle there, which was called Un-in-jo
(un = Izumi, in = Oki-islands, jo = castle), FIG. 3. INSCRIPTION ON LINING OF from which sprang his title Un-in-jo-shu WAR-HAT (shu meaning governor, or lord). The gun itself is interesting as an arm fashion of a war-worn collector, to ask the and differs in several regards from any question, "Can these things be authentic?"
Japanese gun I have examined. Its lock Evidently historical attributions for art
is unlike those of later design. Its barrel objects are always to be accepted with
appears to be of foreign make, probably an reserve. And especially is this true in early importation from Portugal: a reason Japan where there have been collectors for this appears in the character of the little for centuries and where hero worship has
loops which it bears along its under side; for ever been intense. In the above instances,
these were used for pinning the barrel to a however, it seems clear that both the ob- jects and the inscriptions are of the period. birth, while Hideyoshi was notoriously ple- In the case of the hat and the fan their beian, and should have been quite satisfied with the ideograph Go was part and parcel of — ^Otherwise Horio Yoshiharu, or Tatewaki. Hideyoshi's ambitious plans. He was to become (Note kindly given by Mr. Kojiro Fomita.) king of Korea and China combined, leaving
Japan in the hands of lyeyasii : hence it was that -In later Japanese guns, on the other hand, he affected the dress of the Ming emperors and pins are commonly used for attaching the stock caused his subjects to call him Kampaku Taiko. to the barrel.
121 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART exquisite quality leads us to believe that Kojiro Tomita of the Department of Japan- their owner was a personage of high dis- ese Art in the Boston Museum has ex- tinction. As for the gun. it is not onl\- of amined the objects criticall}' and not only the best workmanship, but it was con- read the inscriptions given above but very sidered of such value that it was exhibited kindl\- translated eight archaic ideographs on some occasion and for some purpose, which appear on the barrel of the gun. for I discover as I write this that it bears The\' signif\': "Longevit>' (be) compared
-^C ^B ^^
FIG. 4. WAR FAN OF NAO.MASA, DAIMYO OF MATSUE a catalogue number and the official mark (with the) Southern Mountain: Wealth of a prefecture. These are stamped deepl\' (be) likened (to the) Eastern Sea." This, in very small characters, rust filled, on the it appears, is a classical Chinese formula of side of the barrel near the stock. congratulations. It means, "May you " 1 should finall\- note that the inscriptions live long and prosper! The mountain, given herewith were carefullx' translated b\' Mr. Tomita adds, is (Chung) Nan Shan, my friend, Mr. Hashime Murayama, to near Ch'angan, in Shensi. Mr. K. Makino whom, too, m\- thanks are due for his de- notes interestingl> that the Eastern Sea is tailed references to Japanese documents. named in this formula of well-wishing, since
Since the foregoing was in proof, Mr. it was the home of the god of wealth.
122 XLVI
ARMOR OF DOM PEDRO II, KING OF PORTUGAL
blued or gilded, and these were elaborately ornamented in punched work, showing panoplies, medallions, and foliation.
The provenance of the armor is shown in FIG. I. ORNAMENTAL its decoration; for on the head-piece there RIVET-HEADS appears the crown of Portugal (fig. 3),
A RMOR was largely discarded by /\ the year 1650: it had become so /\ heavy that even horsemen began ^ ^ to take their chances of being in- jured rather than "grunt and sweat under a weary life." Then, too, even the heaviest armor did not give complete protection, for guns and gunpowder had so developed that death reaped at long range. By the reign of Louis XIV a suit of armor was usually composed of but a few heavy pieces, such as casque, corselet, bridle-gauntlet, with occasional reinforcing plates of great strength, which were worn only when needed, as when one showed himself above a rampart, or thrust his head and shoulders above a siege-trench—very much as a soldier does today in the Great War. In those times armor became virtually restricted to the use of officers, especially those of rank. But in spite of the high position of its wearer the armor was apt to FIG. 2. BREASTPLATE OF DOM PEDRO II, be undecorated, poor in quality, and unin- ABOUT 1690 teresting in lines. In the rare cases when it was decorated its enrichment was coarse on the left breast is the Grand Command- and showy, executed rather by workmen er's cross of the military order of Christ than by artist-armorers, whose race was (fig. 4), and at various points, e. g. on fore- well-nigh extinct. Exceptional, therefore, head, breast, and gauntlet, there are the are the pieces of armor, dating about the interlaced letters P. R. which signify Pedro year 1690, which have recently been ac- (II) Rex (King of Portugal, b. 1648 d. quired by the Museum, figs. 2 and 8; for they 1706) (figs. 3 and 5). Add to these indices belong with the best of their class, richly of ownership that the objects came from wrought and ornamented to an extraordin- Portugal, and that the office of Grand ary degree. They comprise head-piece (a Master of the military order of Christ was. lobster-tail burganet), front and back since Pope Julius Ill's edict of 1551, re- plates, bridle gauntlet, and a reinforcing served for sovereigns of Portugal, and plate for the breast. In their original it is fair to conclude that the objects be- condition they were decorated with bands longed to Dom Pedro.
123 -
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
It is greatl>- to be regretted that the in its natural position; but when the\' are
armor is poorly preserved. It is heavil\- rus- opened, as when the knuckles of the gaunt- ted and its orna- let are bent, we see a well-preserved bor- mentation is in der, within this a narrower blued band, and places quite ob- next, the plate itself, which is so brightly
literated. The burnished that it appears to be made of pieces have evi- dently been neg- lected for a long --5- ^'*'H^ ^ time, for their
rust\- surface is
patinated as if from havinghung
FIG. 3. CROWN OF FOR in a church above TLGAL ON HELMET a tomb. Curious- ly enough, time has spared certain parts of the armor. Various bits of the velvet linings are pre- sent and in relativel\- good order, includ- ing the silk- V}r covered tab f the bridle
1 1 t > : ,. g a u n e b jj which this was ^ u 1 1 o n e d to
^ ihe sleeve and FIG. 6. PLUME-HOLDER thus kept in place. The silver. The gilding of the armor suggests quilted silk its decadent period: it was showy and lining of the FIG. 4. CROSS ON crude; for the gold, instead of being at- b u r ga n e t's BREASTPLATE tached to the underh ing metal by fire peak is also gilding (i. e. deposited by heat from a preserved, and in good condition, although mercury amalgam) or by careful damask- its scalloped border is lost. The breast- eening, was merely laid on in sheets and plate still shows in large part its original hammered in place by punches. By this surface; for this was covered with the process the gold was poorly attached to reinforcing plastron, an d when the latter
was r e moved, the goldbandsof the breast- plate stood FIG. FOLIATE ORNAMENTS
\\- out i t h FIG. 5. ROYAL INITIALS ON the steel, and when the latter rusted, the BREASTPLATE great splen- dor. Never- gold separated, peeling oflF from its matrix theless, the points which best show the in strips. original nature of the ornament are We may add that all details of the pres- on the plates of the gauntlet which ent armor indicate its high provenance. cover the back of the hand. These re- The workmanship is of the most costly mained overlapped when the hand hung type. Thus, the plume carrier of the
1^4 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR casque (fig. 6) is beautifully executed worn by Dom Pedro during his campaigns a jour, and remarkable for its period. in the War of the Spanish Succession: we And of equal quality are the rivets, pegs, know that he appeared on the side of hook, and ornamental bands (figs, i and 7). France in 1701, and that later (1703), The weight of the armor (the pieces to- under English influence, he changed sides gether weigh 43 pounds) shows it was used and captured several Spanish towns for the in siege operations. It may well have been Archduke Charles.
FIG. 8. HEAD-PIECE OF DOM PEDRO II ABOUT 1690
125 XLVI
A LATE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN SABRE
the histon' of European arms every mon, and our sword is a good one of its INdecade is apt to develop a recognizable kind. It is a sabre, coutelas, or cutlass, st\le. This shows itself in the way dating about 1685, made in Reggio, a town objects are fashioned, their material, included with the ancient duchy of Modena their form, their ornaments—character- b\- a sword artist whose work is known in istics which give the inquiring student several of the great collections of Europe. many hints as to when, where, and how Its blade, excellent in qualit\', is unusual a certain piece came into being. Let in having a median groove passing along us take as an example the stxie in arms its side almost to its point, which is here which appeared toward the end of the double-edged as in similar arms known to seventeenth century. This expressed itself us. The hilt is of steel richl>- sculptured, in perforated and chiseled steel, elaborate blued, and at one time parcel gilt, the last in design and detailed in execution. It a condition especially rare in a sword of this showed itself in the mountings of guns and kind. Its grip is of a form which occurred pistols, the trappings of armor, and the onl\ for a short period: it merges with the steel hilts of swords. In sword-hilts this pommel and becomes pear-shaped, orna- fashion swept awa\' the earlier one in which mented with deep channeling and with an enrichment was carried out in ridged and applied steel ornament in the form of an beaded surfaces and in lozenges or medal- acanthus leaf: its base, developed in the lions picked out in gold and silver damas- fashion of a ferrule, pictures a crown. A keen. It emphasized the taste that an knuckle-guard, or hranche, is present and object of steel should be enriched o;//v in bears delicateh' chiseled foliation. steel, that an artist should now use his It is the guard itself, howe\er, which hard medium as fluently as his predecessors particular!)' concerns us. This is de- had employed bronze or incrustations of veloped onl\' on one side and is broad, softer metals, that the bright colors of sub-circular, rounding o\er the hand. It silver, gold, and allo\s of earlier workers is ornamented b\" perforation and elaborate should give place to the somber finish of chiseling; on its outer side it bears pan- steel in brown, brownish-blue, or black. oplies encircling a medallion on which is One has onl\' to examine the types of a horseman with holster pistol and sword, swords appearing in portraits of the period, and the device "Unus non sufficit." On English, French, German, and Italian, to its inner side appears the bust of a per- see how widespread was this fashion. In a sonage of the period 1680-90 with full wig, sense it was an affected fashion; for while lace neckgear, and armor. This is framed it discarded the earlier, complicated, by a wreath of laurel and surmounted b}' a basket-shaped sword-hilts for something ducal crown. The crown, according to simpler in lines, less conspicuous in size, Litta's work (Famiglie celebri italiane, and less striking in color, it was yet of 1825, Milan), is that of the Duch\- of greater luxur\', for the sculptured steel was Modena, and from an illustration there more costly even than many a hilt fash- given the personage ma\' well be Duke ioned in precious metals. Francesco II (1660- 1694), who, by the way, A sword which illustrates this fashion is remembered by English students as the has latel}' come into the possession of the brother-in-law of James II. Museum and may be described here The present sword bears on the base of briefly; for its t\pe is by no means com- the guard the incised initials P. A. These
126 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR evidently stand for Petrus Ancinus of two examples of his work, quite similar in Reggio, for this artist is known to have quality to the sabre-hilt, to which Mr. executed similar objects and to have signed H. W. Harding recently called my atten- them with his full name. He may well tion. One of them is the sculptured lock have made the sword at the order of his of a harquebus, the other a trigger guard patron, either for the duke himself or for which probably belonged to the same lock. some member of the ducal household. We The lock, exhibited at the Burlington Fine may be certain, at least, that only a per- Arts Club in 1900 and figured in its cata- sonage of distinction would have carried logue, is said to have come from the treas- so costly a sword. We know, furthermore, ury of the Sultan at Constantinople: it that Petrus Ancinus was already in the bears the signature: Petrus Ancinus Re- service of the dukes of Modena, for in 1661 giensis. F. MDCXXXXllI. The trigger he executed a sword bearing the blazon of guard with similar inscription was sold in the Este, and signed it in full. This is Paris in 1895 in the collection of M. Frederic now preserved in the Artillery Museum in Spitzer.
. of the catalogue of 1 ), and is interesting in the matter of Paris (J 230 89 1 Our sabre is similar to the present sword but more its date, for it is probably one of the latest elaborate in workmanship. In fact, our works of the master; for in the list noted artist seems to have been so favorably above, Ancinus's period of activity ranged known that he was patronized by some between 1641 and 1661, while the present of the greatest princes of his day. Thus sabre hardly antedates 1680. he prepared for one of the de' Medici The early provenance of our arm is un- the sword (1641) which is now in the mu- known. It was obtained from Mr. Hard- seum in Florence (Catalogue of the Bar- ing, who in turn had it from the well- gello, 1898, p. 28). There are also extant known collector. Baron de Cosson.
GUARD OF SABRE BEARING THE INITIALS OF PETRUS ANCINUS, ITALIAN, ABOUT 1685
127 XLVIIl
THE ARMOR OF SIR JAMES SCUDAMORE
ARMOR OF SIR JAMES SCUDAMORE
two suits of armor obtained These harnesses, described in the Bulle-
THEin 191 1 from the Earl of Chester- tin of June, 1913, are known to have be- field have finally been placed in longed to a well-known personage of their cases. The work of re- Queen Elizabeth's court. Sir James Scuda- pairing and restoring them and of removing more, who was, by the way, the Sir Scuda- deep-seated rust from all their parts con- more of Spenser's Faerie Queene. In sumed far more time than was at first ex- the earlier article we noted that the har- pected. Then, too, the task was inter- nesses were discovered in the attic of rupted by the installation of the Riggs Holme Lacy, the ancient manor-house of Collection in the new galleries. the Scudamore family, where they had
128 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
remained ever since the time of Elizabeth, unfortunately missing. Thus, the gaunt- and^where, unhappily, they had been lets had been lost and in one suit the placed in a chest near an attic window headpiece was absent and in the other where storms beat in and rust corrupted. the corselet, together with several less There is no question, of course, that the essential pieces. armor actually belonged to Sir James; for Hence there arose the delicate question
SECOND HARNESS OF SIR JAMES SCUDAMORE
the portrait of this personage exists show- as to what should be done in the way of ing him in one of the suits now in our gal- restoration. The armor was to be cleaned lery and the second suit is identified by and repaired, that was clear; but should means of a sixteenth-century drawing in the suits be exhibited in their defective color inscribed with his name, which condition, without head in the one suit, formed one of the plates in the well-known and corselet in the other? Or should the Armorer's Album now in South Kensing- missing pieces be restored in strict accord- ton Museum. ance with the contemporar}' drawings we
In the earlier Bulletin it was explained had of them? One expert, it must be ad- that certain elements of both suits were mitted, advised leaving the suits precisely
129 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART as they were and exhibiting them in a vi- tion. Both their outer and inner surfaces trine as detached objects, rust and all! were slowly freed from rust, and bright
But every other expert I consulted in and surfaces were restored as nearly as possible out of museums cordially recommended to their primitive condition, but the etched that the missing pieces be restored. In the areas were kept absolutely intact. It goes first place, the lost parts were accurately without saying that the ancient gilding known and in the second place, the har- remains precisely as it "came out," when nesses could be far better appreciated and the rust was removed. Happily much of understood if the\' were shown to visitors the old gilding is still present: it was laid on in as nearly as possible their original condi- heavily by the artist who enriched the tion —certainly not as they appeared after armor, and it came into full view only after the neglect and mishaps of centuries. The la\'ers of ancient rust were softened and modern elements could, of course, be so brushed away. made that they would not destro\' the en- The entire work of restoration was car- semble of the suits; but, ever to distinguish ried on within the Museum, all technical them from the genuine pieces, the\' should work executed with great skill by Daniel bear deeply etched in their surface the Tachaux, the Museum's master-armorer, signature of their maker and the date. whose results, it will be seen, bear com- And the label should state clearly what parison with those of master Jacobe, or elements are new. Jacoby, who executed the original armor The original parts of the armor were, of in the roval workshops of Greenwich about course, treated with the greatest considera- 1585.
130 —
XLIX
MR. MORGAN'S MILANESE CASQUE
of armor decorated by em- and attracts general attention (figs, PIECES i, 2, 3, bossing were ever rare. In general and 4). Modeled in graceful lines, it they date from the middle or suggests somewhat a Periklean casque, later part of the sixteenth cen- moulded close to the head at the back and tury—which were decades of great luxury sides, and furnished with a longish frontal and represent peak. Its em- the supreme bossed decora- effort of the ar- tion covers it morer to enrich lavishly: on its his casques, sides are leaves shields, and and coiling plastrons in tendrils and a the most beau- central flower tiful manner. from which a They were cupid half em- objets de grand erges; its comb prince, for so is fashioned as d i ffi c u 1 1 and a supine female time-consum- figure which ing was the art arises from of making them acanthus leaves that few indeed on the back of could afford to the helmet and possess them. extends head An important downward on specimen, made the frontal. In even under the hands are FIG. I. CASQUE BY PHILIP DE NEGROLI, I 543 favorable con- caught tresses ditions, might claim the time of an artist of a gorgon's head, which forms a large not for months merely but for years. frontal ornament. So bold is this embossed There are at the present time few pieces work and so admirable its quality and sharp- of armor of this class outside the cases of ness that an observer can hardly realize that museums. Of richly embossed helmets the work has been accomplished in steel. there are on this side of the Atlantic but It suggests rather a casque of dark-colored two specimens, so far as I know, not on bronze, which had simply been cast from public view, the third having recently been a model fashioned in soft wax—not em- lent to the Metropolitan Museum through bossed, after many months of labor, in the kindness of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. metal—an illusion made more striking This casque formed part of the collection by the beautiful dark patine which the of Mr. Morgan's father and long stood in steel has acquired in the course of centuries. his library on a case opposite his favorite Technically, the casque is a "renaissance chair. It had come into his hands from burganet": its cheek-pieces are lacking, the Due de Luynes, who had held it among but it still retains its separate brow-plate his most treasured possessions. bearing an inscription. This reads philipp'.
It is an object of extraordinary beauty, NEGROLU. FECIT. MDXXXXIII.
«3> THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
A few notes as to the artist who made it. ganet, which is the richest of all that are
Philip de Negroli, born about 1 500, died known, and which probably occupied most
1, Michel- about 1 56 was unquestionably the of his time during the >'ears 1542 and 1543. angelo of armorers. His fame was wide- Finally he executed in 1545 (7) the bur- spread in the great courts of Europe during ganet of Charles V which shows Fame and the second half of the sixteenth century. Victory, its comb fashioned as a supine In an early work (1595), La Nobilita di figure not unlike the one on the Morgan Milano, he is referred to "as meriting im- casque. This is dated and signed f. et mortal praise as the foremost embosser FRAT. DE NEGROLis (Madrid, D. 30). {intagliaiore) of steel, both in high and low As to the original ownership of Mr. Mor- relief, in which he excelled his famous gan's casque. It was made within the brothers. This virtuous spirit caused the \ears when Philip de Negroli was receiving
King of France and the Emperor Charles commissions from the Emperor; and it is V to be amazed (siupire) at his truly mar- hardly to be supposed that he would have velous work in armor, head-pieces, and produced at the same time and for a lesser miraculous shields." So far as we know personage a casque more elaborate and them,^ his works are seven. He prepared costly. Certain it is that, from the year
for the Duke of Urbino (i) a head-piece 1533, when he commenced to fill the orders embossed in steel as a portrait of this per- of Charles V, all of his extant signed pieces,
sonage. This is now preserved in the Im- with the exception of Mr. Morgan's casque, perial Collection in Vienna (No. 212): its remain as part of the imperial heritage.
inscription reads: philippi nigroli jac. f. But if the casque belonged to this court, MEDIOLANENSIS. OPUS. MDXXXII (=JaCObi why have we no record of so important a
Fili, his father Giacomo remaining un- piece? Why was it not figured in the late til about 1539 the head of the Negroli sixteenth-century catalogue of the collec- workshops). In the following year Philip tion, or mentioned in the archives of the de Negroli appears to have begun to execute Armeria? And if it did belong to the pieces for the Emperor Charles V, having Emperor, how could such a specimen have been recommended to him by the Duke been abstracted with impunity—even at a of Urbino. (2) He then made for the Em- time when many inconspicuous pieces peror a similar casque, virtually a portrait in disappeared? steel, which is now preserved in Madrid (D. To whom, then, did the present casque i). It bears the inscription: jac. philip- belong? Clearly, to a personage of the PUS NEGROLUS. MEDIOLAN. FACIEBAT. very highest rank, and one who had the MDXXxiii. At the same time he prepared artistic taste to prize such a possession. for the Emperor (3) the "Shield of the May it not have been Francis I? He was Lion" (D. 2), now also in Madrid. His certainly the rival of the Emperor in many next known work dates six years later: ways: he was even his superior as a patron it is (4) the splendid suit of armor in of artistic work, and he was certainly not Madrid (A 139), which bears a casque his second as a lover of beautiful armor. similar to the present one but not so richly We know, in point of fact, from the docu- embossed. In fashioning this suit Philip ment of 1595 cited above, that he was was aided by his brothers, as the inscription much impressed with the work of Philip states. He then executed (5) a shield for the de Negroli, and we recall most interest- Emperor, bearing the famous "Gorgona- ingly that he was the ruling duke of Milan Medusa," now in Madrid (D. 64), which at the time when Negroli was preparing probably cost him over two years' labor, this casque (1543); for Francis's last even with the assistance of his brothers. struggle to retain Milan was between 1542 It was completed in 1541. Following this and 1544, when by the Peace of Crespy he the artist prepared (6) the present bur- lost his duchy to the Emperor. Add to this that while such a casque could not 1 Among our authorities are included the notes reasonably have found its out of the given by MM. Gelli-Moretti and the Comte de way Valencia de Don Juan. Imperial Armory it may well have dis-
132 FIG. 2. CASQUE, FRONT VIEW
FIG. 3. CASQUE, SEEN FROM ABOVE FIG. 4. CASQUE, BACK VIEW THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART appeared from the French king's posses- French pieces for embossing a princely sions, Hke so many other important arms casque! which were scattered during the Revolu- B. D. tion. So far as we know, moreover, the ^ Among my papers I find a note (which 1 made present object was long preserved in in 1914 in Florence when visiting the Baron France.^ It would be by no means sur- de Cosson) that the casque in question was brought to England in the early part of the prising, therefore, if a study of the French nineteenth century and was sold in 1834 as lot archives demonstrated that in Francis 1543 No. 366 in the sale of Sir B. Brocas. Was it I paid Philip de Negroli many broad then purchased by a Due de Luynes?
PHILIPP-NEC ROLV' FECIT V. :XXXX1I1
134 —
POLE-ARMS: THEIR KINDS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT
visitor to the Riggs Collection various forms in different periods. Thus THEgives his greatest interest to the if a visitor, glancing at the label, wishes to armor, but next to this he exam- know what kind of pole-arms were seen ines attentively the pole-arms during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, he which cover the walls of the main gallery will only glance across the label near and and are arranged in groups at the bases of below the line marked 1600. If he seeks the central columns. For these are stately the arms carried in the time of Joan of arms, many of them richly decorated, Arc, he need only examine those arranged bringing to mind the pomp and ceremony above the line 1400; during the last con- of ancient war. Particularly impressive quest of Constantinople, along a line below is the series of these pole-arms shown: it 1500; in the American Revolution, along a includes over seven hundred carefully se- line near the top of the figure. Among the lected specimens, running a gamut of many pole-arms he will find forms so com- forms, some simple, some infinitely com- plicated and so distinct from one another plex. To understand their kinds, their that had he not the figure before him he periods, and their origin is, however, by no could hardly understand that all of the means an easy task for the layman. Hence, fourscore varieties represented may be a descriptive label has recently been put derived from but four ancestral types. in place which illustrates about eighty Among these are to be recognized three agri- varieties of these pole-arms^ and aims not cultural implements, i. e., axe, reaping- only to show their names but how they may hook, and wide-bladed knife or scythe. best be classified. In this plan we have The fourth ancestral form is the spear followed the descriptive label for helmets the only real war weapon among them. (see Bulletin, vol. X, pp. 173-177) and This state of affairs suggests interestingl\' have attempted to map out the various that the people who used pole-arms in "lines" of pole-arms somewhat in the early times were mainly peasants or serfs fashion of a zoologist who explains the who had been drafted into military service development of horses, shells, or fishes. and who brought with them the tools of Thus, on page 137 it will be seen that our their trade. pole-arms are arranged in a genealogical In explaining the present label, let us tree, the oldest members of each kind consider in order the suites of each of these appearing lowest in each tree, but that the four early forms. horizontal lines across the label indicate THE AXE AS THE ANCESTOR OF THE HALBERD not the zoologist's or geologist's periods of time but merely advancing centuries. Examination of the label shows that the This arrangement, we may add, proves a many kinds of halberds lead back step b\' useful one for our purpose: it shows at a step to the broad-headed axe. This, by the glance when pole-arms occurred in greatest way, was a rather short-shafted arm. It variety, and it naturally associates the was succeeded by the hcrdiche, a pole-axe, ^This discussion concerns European forms longer in shaft, and having tiic n:irro\v from the Middle Ages onward: it omits, how- lower end of the tall blade rounded in\\:ird ever, certain lines of development, e.g. deriva- and braced against the shaft. At first this tives of hammers, clubs, and picks; nor does it lower end of the blade merol\' touched the refer to the pole-arms of the classical period or shaft; it fastened to of the Orient. These have followed different wooden then became lines of development. it; next it embraced the shaft, developing
•35 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART for this purpose an encircling loop, like these the blade was large, strongly cut, and the main ring which forms the socket of the square: its attachment to the shaft was axe-head. This "generalized" type of mainly in the lower loop, or socket, which pole-axe was common to all countries of arose, as we noted above, not from the Europe before the year 1400. It was es- great socket of the ancestral axe, but from sentially the butcher's heavy weapon with the new loop which the berdiche developed which he clave the head of an ox. It was when its blade came to be supported below this primitive halberd which the Swiss against the shaft. Thus, a new structure mountaineers used in their early struggle came into use, competed successfully with with Austria, and at Sempach and Mor- an older one, and in the end supplanted it, garten it destroyed much splendid armor. just as in the evolution of animals the
But in battle it was found useful not only ear-hole supplants a gill, by "change of for chopping but for thrusting, hence the function," or teeth supplant scales. In narrowing of the front end of its plate. In fact, in our Gothic halberd even the new its next stage it developed a hook which was socket, we note, did not give the final in the beginning separate from the axe- method of attaching the entire "iron" or head, and was merely wrapped around the head to the shaft. For, from the lower shaft. But this fastening was imperfect border of the new socket were developed and the beak was apt to swing from side to outgrowths (shank and straps) by which side like the tongue of a buckle. It was the halberd-head could be nailed securely
used evidently to drag a knight from his in place. As the result of this it could no saddle, to trip a horse, or at need to grapple longer slip from its handle, as sometimes a wall up which the sturdy soldier clam- happened in the more primitive vouges and
bered. It is instructive at this point to berdiches. The beak in the Gothic hal- trace the fate of the halberd "beak." berd, we next see, became clearly a part of
One thing is clear: the beak was found use- the blade, and below it there grew out a
ful and it "came to stay." It needed first, flange which had a special function in
however, to be stiffened, for as a loosely fencing or grappling: thus we note that it
fastened hook it could not readily secure sometimes developed irregular notches by
its object; hence, it was next clamped which the points of halberds or swords closely between the two loops by which the could be held securely. Interesting, too,
blade was attached to the shaft, and these is the development of the apical spike. We
now became wide so as to pinch the hook have seen that it was originally but the
in position. Such an early halberd was upper part of the flat blade of the vouge: it called a hippa, or vouf[e, and its forms were later elongated, thickened at the tip, and especially common in the Alps, where, became quadrangular in section. Glancing indeed, the\' persisted in use for several at our label, we see that by the xear 1500
centuries. Thus, we find in out-of-the-way all the typical parts of the halberd-head had cantons that they continued to be made come into being, and the halberd from now quite in the ancient st\le as late as the end onward can no longer be classed as an axe. of the seventeenth centurx' —provincial Its apex is a long, thin spike, suited for forms which only an expert can distinguish thrusting through or between plates of from genuine early specimens, which, by armor or for perforating chain-mail. Its the way, are rare and costly. In a word, beak became a wide, flat prong furnished the vouge was, par excellence, the halberd with curious processes at its base, adapted of the Swiss, recurring indeed even in dis- for some particular function in fencing.
tant countries where Swiss guards were But it was especially the blade which un-
employed, as in France or Italy. In Sax- derwent changes; it was developed more
ony, too, its form occurs , in a character- for thrusting than for chopping, its upper
istic arm of the state guard of Christian I end was narrow and pointed, and its lower and II and probably of johann Georg. end was so fashioned that it could pull A long line of Gothic halberds can next down hostile arms, or if need be, aid in wall- be traced from the simpler vouge. In climbing.
136 /8oo rSoo
HALBERD HEAD AND ITS PARTS POLE ARMS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR COMMONER FORMS DURING THE CENTURIES
TANLtV J ROVVL .
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
The development of later halberds,, sa\' tion. Thus the entire halberd-head became between the \ears 1500 and 1600, is well reduced in size, the beak and blade lost seen in the examples shown on the left their form and tended to coalesce, orna- side of our diagram. The progressive ments disappeared and out-rolled prongs changes include the lengthening of the were now represented onh' b\- holes in apical spike and the reduction of the blade. the bod\' of the blade. In the latest phase The latter was now used as a double beak of its development, about the time of the and was of so little use as an axe that its French Revolution, the halberd-head be- edge was not even sharpened. From hal- came a small, simplified pickaxe fastened berds of this t\ pe are derived most of the below the head of the artillerxman's pike. later forms. In one line of these (at the POLE-ARMS DERIXED FROM THE REAPING- right) the halberd-head became reduced in HOOK weight, and was probablx' valued far less as an arm than as a processional decor. .Man\" pole-arms trace their elaborate This t\pe developed "openwork" in the outline back to the simple cur\ es of ancient substance of blade and beak, and its cor- reaping-hooks. Thus s.iiisarmes. common ners sprouted out as irregular spines. The in the courts of ltal\" and France during final member of this series, a Swedish form, the Renaissance, are lineal survivors of the dating from the middle of the seventeenth hook-shaped implement carried b\' earh' century, is so bizarre that one hardl>' under- peasant soldier\ . In this arm the curved stands at first how it could be a sur\ i\or blade was found to be especialh' dangerous of the simpler halberd of the preceding to a mounted horseman; for, as he charged
centurx . Comparison, howexer. shows through a group of pikemen, it might either that it arose from a halberd whose beak catch in the plates of his armor or maim and blade were widel\ perforated. Cn the his horse, hence the German name for this other hand, it is interesting to note that arm, Rosschiuder. In earlier guisarmes an opposite mode of evolution has been the lateral beak and a short apex arose followed in a north Italian halberd which directl> out of the fiat blade, and there dates in the later part of the sixteenth were as \ et no prongs at its base. The centur\ : here the beak and blade, instead of great period of this arm was earh' in the becoming lighter and fenestrated, grew sixteenth centur\', when it attained maxi- broad and heavy. The blade, in fact, in mum size: its spike was quadrangular in this halberd is probably the largest of its section and its hook long and sharp, quite kind—too large for actual service, but capable of amputating the hoof of a running imposing in the hands of a ceremonial horse. In the later part of the sixteenth guard. In still another developmental line centurx the guisarme was reduced in size, halberds degenerated in size. One of its basal lappets degenerated, its shank them, occurring about the year 1700, had a narrowed into a stalk-shaped ferrule, and head so small that it could actualh be its hook became heav\- and proportionately covered b\ the palm of one's hand: as small. The last of these pole-arms were a weapon it was obviousl>' of little use; it sadlx degenerate; the\ were ver\ small in became merelx" a staff or cane of ceremon\ size, their beak became either an ornament
In our label we note that the later halberds or a small hook b\' which it could conven- produced wide-bladed "spikes." reverting ientl\ be hung on a peg. Guisarmes of somewhat in this respect to the condition latest t\pe were known onlv in Ital\- where in the vouge. although we see at once that the\- became the ceremonial sta\es of this wide apical development never arises majordomos or suisses. from the blade of the halberd but is alwaxs We might note here an eccentric form of the flattened outgrowth of the margins of the guisarme, the "scorpion." a form oc- the spike. This "fiat-headed" t\ pe ap- curring for a short period and onI\', so far peared about the \ear 1600. From this as I know, in northern Italw It was time onward its forms were numerous and Iargel\' guisarme, partl\' halberd, and the\' occurred alwax s in lines of degenera- partl\' fauchard.
138 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
We should finally include in our deriva- derived from a smaller arm, underwent tives of the reaping-hook the bill, or brown- numerous changes. Thus, the early fau- bill, which was early developed in England; chard developed a blade-catching beak very for it was the national pole-arm and ranked much as did the brownbill. And later, with the longbow in popular favor. In fact, like the guisarme, it gave rise to basal "bows and bills" was a common gathering- prongs. Later still it developed two cry of English soldiers during the fourteenth structures, an ornamental outgrowth on and fifteenth centuries. We note in our the back of its blade, and a prong at the diagram that the earliest bill was little hinder end of its blade-catcher. These more than a shafted reaping-hook. It new elements deserve especial notice, for then developed a longer blade with a more they in turn became centers of develop- decided hook and a longer beak which mental changes. Thus they increased in bent forward from an elbow. This was length, in width, and in ornament, until, used to catch a blade in "fencing." In its during the seventeenth century, they next stage the bill had a long, wide, and formed the distinguishing marks of the sickle-shaped blade with a more pronounced fauchard of the doge's guard. This arm, beak for blade-catching and for thrusting. it may be mentioned, grew to be of great Finally, toward the end of the fifteenth size— it was, indeed, probabl\' the largest century there arose a bill so highly special- pole-arm in the entire series. It was cer- ized that one hardly ventures at first sight tainly too large to be used, and it was to associate it with its earliest form. Its almost too heavy to be carried, in spite of blade was very long and very narrow, the fact that its blade is believed to have shaped like a keen, incurved surgical knife, been cut out of "rolled" sheet-steel instead and its beak was produced straight forward, of being made of carefully hammered metal. its tip suggesting a bodkin twenty inches It is probable that the fauchard of in length. The whole arm seems impos- Europe appeared also in the Orient, whither sibly fragile, especially when we recall it may have been carried by early traders. that a knight at that time was wearing the A similar arm is there seen in use even to- best of plate-armor. So hard was its day; e. g., carried by ceremonial guards in metal and so perfectly were its plates fitted Chinese courts of justice. to the body of the wearer that he became DERIVATIVES OF THE SPEAR well-nigh invulnerable. But this was the very reason, it appears, that a highly There are many kinds of pole-arms de- specialized pole-arm was prepared, not to scended from the ancient spear. In the break his armor, but to penetrate it none first of these the spear-blade expanded into the less. Hence the blade was slender, so a formidable ox-tongue whose blade was that it could be slipped between joints of over two feet in length. From a form armor, as at the elbow, knee, or shoulder. similar to this but with slight basal lobes And the long, polished spike was designed arose the typical partisans of the late to perforate chain-mail of "proof." The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From beak, shaped like a delicate bodkin, would these again arose the man\' forms of have to break only a single link of mail in spontoons which were carried by lower order to inflict a dangerous wound. grades of officers from the time of the wars in Flanders in the seventeenth century POLE-ARMS DERIVED FROM THE SCYTHE OR down to the American Revolution and SIMILAR KNIFE-SHAPED BLADE Waterloo. In fact, I learn from my friend, The couteau de hreche was undoubtedly Colonel William C. Sanger, that e\ery the direct descendant of the military military officer of the State of New York is scythe. It was in fact scarcely- more than supposed to have in his possession a spon- a scythe-blade mounted on a shaft, and toon; for the old law. it appears, has nc\er as an arm it changed but little during the been repealed. The spontoon, wo may fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth cen- add, underwent a scries of interesting de- turies. On the other hand, the Jaiicbard, generations. The latest spontoons are
«39 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART small, short, and wide, and the ornamental chaiive-sonris, so called from the shape of its structures of earlier days ma\' hardly be large lateral prongs which developed a recognized. It may be mentioned that serrated margin like the wing of a bat. some of their early forms evolved elabor- These various trident-shaped pole-arms ately decorated bases: in one of them there were most numerous in southern Europe. appears a sunburst, which calls to mind the The runka is characteristicallx' Venetian, device of Louis XIV, but which seems to the korseke appears to have been at home have been used in Savo\' and elsewhere. in the Trentino, and the Friauler spiess,
The second line of evolution in spears as the name suggests, is from the Friulian took its beginnings in the ancient hunting Alps in the region of Trieste. In general, pike, or 'pien, in which a pair of lappets was though, judging from contemporary pic- present at the base of the blade. These tures and materials in earlx' armories, all lappets originally served to keep a boar of these arms seem to have seen active or bear from "running up" the spear when service far from their primitive homes. wounded. When the discovery was made, Thus the chauve-souris is known to have however, that the lateral lappets or prongs been not uncommon in France and Flan- could inflict dangerous wounds, the\' soon ders. underwent an interesting evolution on their own account. From such a hunting arm The pole-arm, in summarv, was originally four well-marked kinds of later pole-arms a Bauer Wafj'e, or peasant's arm. It was came to be developed. The first of these onl\' after a centur\' or two of use that it was the trident-shaped riiuka in which the began to take a high position as an arm of basal prongs were crescentic in earlv forms ceremonw Some of the forms were carried and narrow in late ones, long and slender onl\' b\' officers, and many of the txpes like the tines of a fork. The extreme de- shown in our galleries are objects of no velopment of the runka in the late sixteenth little bcaut\- both in design and in work- and early seventeenth centur\- was the manship. From the later half of the feather staff, which appears t\picall\' in fifteenth centurx' onward their blades were northern Italy; in this arm the tines and frequentl\- enriched with engraving, bluing, the huge median spike could be folded gilding, and inlays of precious metals; and together and dropped into a hollow handle their shafts were carved, sometimes covered which served as a walking staff: the\- could with rich brocade, and adorned with gilded be swung out again for service when a studs and tassels. In the last respect some spring was touched —another example of of the most beautiful tassels which have high specialization. Korsekes and Friaiile come down to us from the sixteenth century Spiesse are kindred pole-arms developed belonged originally to ancient halberds. from the hunting spear. In the korseke It ma\' finallx' be remarked that the each lateral prong developed a tin\' pointed fashion of ornamienting halberds is quite terminal and close below it a short, sharp, characteristic in different periods. In the cutting blade, structures whose use was examples shown in the label just below the evidently definite but at present unknown. line 1500, the ornamental patterns are In the Friauler spiess lateral prongs were usually expressed by series of fine dots evolved which rounded downward and punched into the metal: in the pole-arms which served in pulling down hostile pikes which are pictured above the line 1500 we so that cavalry could charge over them. are apt to find that the ornaments are In the he\day of these spiesse the lateral etched, and the background filled in by prongs were enormous in spread and might parallel lines; in this, as in the former de- well have drawn together quite a sheaf of sign, the ornament is often gilded a mercure. hostile pikes: in their latest stage, as we About the middle of the sixteenth century might expect, the hooks on either side the commonest t\'pe of ornamentation is became rudimentary, and were forged etched and filled in with black: in these separately from the main blade. The final cases the background shows minute, up- derivative of the lobate spear was the lifted dots in clean steel. Toward the end
140 NOTES ON ARMS AND ARMOR
of the century, ornamentation by engraving mina): e. g., the wonderful Borghese fau- a hurin or else by chiseling is common, the chard in the Riggs Collection. background in some cases being boldly Throughout the eighteenth century pole- sculptured. This fashion of ornamenta- arms were rarely objects of beauty. Their tion appears during the seventeenth cen- value had passed away: they were at home tury about as frequently as etching, neither in camps nor in courts: and in the especially in wide-bladed partisans and end they retained hardly a trace of their spontoons. Only in the richest arms of ancestral glory. To a zoologist's mind they this century, however, is ornamentation recall, as a parallel, the sad case of the apt to occur, but when it does appear it is little rockbound and leathery "sea-peach," of the most lavish type, showing gilding, which has inherited from its great forebears bluing, and inlays of precious metal {ani- neither ear, nor eye, nor backbone, nor brain.
141
1
INDEX
A AsHiKAGA, Takauji, 1 19 ASSELINEAU, 96 Abbeville WOODWORK, 109 AssuR, 52 ACQUABELLA ChATEAU, 6 Assyrian sword, 52 Adad-Nirari, sword of, 53 Atsuoki, 83 Adargue, 46 Augustus the Strong, 95 Ahlspiess, 31 AwABE, helmet in shape of, 9 Allamuchy, N. J., 39 Almain Armourers' Album, 58, 63, 66, B 128 Alphonsothe Wise, 74 Babylonian sword, 52 Alva, Duke of, 95 Bachereau, V. R., 26 Ambras Collection, 95 Back-plate, Greek, 25 America, armor worn in, 55 Banner, Byzantine, 98
Amherst, Lord, armor worn by, 57 Barbute, 50, 1 16 Ancinus, Petrus, 127 Barlow, Joel, 57 Andros, Gov., armor worn by, 57 Barzabal, 46 Anne of Brittany, 30 Basilewsky, Prince, 92
Anvil, 62, 109, 1 10, 1 1 Basinet, 42, 1 14, 1 16 Apron, Japanese, of champion wrestler, 28 Bassompierre, Marquis de, 95
Aquilegian basinet, 1 16 Bavarian National Museum, 80 Aragon, 74 Beaumont, de, 92 Arima, Daim\o of, 4, 104 Bec-de-corbin, 41 Arm defenses of Daimyo of Nambu, 19 Belleval, Marquis de, 47, 62, 92, 94
Armet, 1 16 Bel-Nirari, 53
Armet-a-rondelle, 1 16 Bench-vise, 109 Armor, early, 23, 38, 74 Berdiche, 135
Armor, embossed, 36, 37 Bevor, 1 17 Armor, European, in Japan, 4, 6 Bill, 139 Armor for man and horse, 26 Bishop, Heber R, 7 Armor Gallery, rearranged, 17, 29 Blair, Robert Sterling, 56
Armor making, 40, 62, 1 10 BoEHEiM, Wendelin, 96 Armor, Maximilian, 35 BoLO, compared with Assxrian sword, 52 Armor of Pedro II, 123 Bolts, 8 Armor, weight of, 125 BoscAWEN, 52 Armor worn in America, 55 BOUTET, 46 Armorers' implements, collection of, 40, Bow AND QUIVER, Reuaissaucc, 100 62 Boy, 98 Armorers in Hartford, Conn., 56 Brayette, 66 Armorers' sketch book, 58 Breastplate, 31, 40 Armorer's WORKSHOP, 109 Bredalbane, Earl of, 39, 48 Armourers' Company in London, 68 British Museum, 52 Arretine, Baron von, 87 Brocas, Sir B., 134 Arrows, Renaissance, 100 Brown-bill, 139 Artillery Museum in Paris, 26, 62, 127 BucKHURST, Lord, 68 Ashikaga helmets, 7 Buckler, 74, 9^
143 1
INDEX
Buff coats in America, 56 C0UR\ AL, 94 BUFFE, 117 couteau de breche, 1 39 burganet. 117 Cromwellian armor, 56 Burnett sale, 9 Crossbow, 8, ioi Burton, ^2 C D
Cabasset. 1 17 Damascus steel, 12 Cabasset, Dutch, in Nikko, 4 Date Kunimune of Sendai, 18
Camail. 1 14 Date Masamune, 15 Campobasso, 23 Davilliers. 94 Can Grande, 95 Dean, Bashford, 13. 14. 40. 47. 106 Cannon, Turko-Austrian, 12 Deshima, 4 Cant'igas de Santa Maria, 74 Devil-fish, represented on Japanese ar- Capece-Galeota, 100 mor, 9 Capua. 23 Diane de Poitiers, i 12 Carhart. Amor\ S.. 47 Dillon. \'iscount, 58, 66 Carna\ ALET, 94 DiNO, Due de. Collection, 26, 29. 38, 41. Carrand, 62, 90 42, 62 Casque attributed to Jeanne d Arc. 41 Do-MARU, 15 Casque, Celtic, 23 Donaldson, B. M., 100
Casque, Corinthian. 1 16 DoRiA, ^, 93 Casque, Mr. Morgans Milanese, 130 DossiERE. 33 Casques, Tibetan priests', 3 Drouot, 77 Celtic casque. 23 Drums formed of crania, 3 Celtic corselet, 32 Dudley, Gov., buff coat of, 56 Cernuschi. 76 Duhn, \'on, 23 Chabriere-Arles. 92 Cham plain, armor worn by, 56
Chapel-de-fer, 1 16 Chapeline, 41, 42 Edward \ II, collection of, 59 Charles, .Archduke, 125 Effigies, 79 Charles I. collection 01,43 Elizabethan armor, 58, 63 Charles \', 132 94, 95, Ellis. .Augustus \"an Home, 38 Chauve-souris, 140 Eloi, St., 1 1 Chesterfield. Earl of, 62, 63, 128 Embossed ar.mor, 36, 37, 130 Choate, Joseph H., 34 E.M.MANUEL, \ictor, 88 Christian 1,95 Epieu, 140 Christian II, 95 Este, 127 Clay. Professor, 53 Evolution, in helmets, 1 3 ; in f>oIe-arms, 135 Clav.more OF Earl of Bredalbane, 1 39 Exhibition of arms and armor, loan, 47 COLMAN, 47 CoLONNA. Marcus .Antonius. 95 Co.MiNAZZO, Lazarino, 46 CoNQLTSTAlX)R STIRRUP, 55 constantin. 32 Faerie Oueene, 63 Constantinople, 127 Fairfa.x, armor worn by. 57 Constantinople, Paul of, orletz, 98 Falaise, 23
Corpus Cassidum, 23 Fan, War, Japanese, 1 19 Corselet of Hallstatt Period, 32 Fauchard, 138, 139 CoRTEZ, 55 Feather staff, 140 CossoN, Baron de, 38, 39, 41, 47, 62, 94, Ferdinand OF Tyrol, 95 127 Field, William B. Osgood, 48, 106
144 5 5 5
INDEX
Florence, 6, 127 Hefner-Alteneck, 47, 87, 88
Forgeries, i i i Heidelberg, 26 FoRMAN Collection, 32 Helmet, Japanese, dated 1850, 7
FoRRER, R., 32, 96 Helmet, Norman, 1 14 Francis I, 132 Helmet, Roman, 24 Francis II, 126 Helmets, European, in Japan, 4
Freppa, 94 Helmets, explanatory label, 1 13 Friaule Spiess, 140 Henri, 26 Frothingham, Professor, 53 Henry, Prince of Wales, 95
FuDo, 8, 14, 21, 22 Henry H, 85, 95, 1 18 Fujiwara-no-Hidehira, 15, 16 Henry IV, 94 FusHiMi, Yamashiro, 14 HiDEYOSHi, 120 Hideyuki, 83 G Highland arms, 48 Hinomisaki, 22 Gallatin, Albert, 106 HipPA, 136 Gardyne, Bruce, 41 HiTACHiYAMA, Tanincman, 28 Gauntlets of Earl of Sussex, 58 Hohenaschau, 87 Gay, Victor, 92, 96 Hokkyu, 83 Geneva, 32 hollandais, 46
Germanic Museum, 80 Holme Lacy, armor from, 63, 1 28 GoDA, Masauji, of Kyoto, 13, 14, 60, 71 HoRio Taito, 120
GooDE, G. Brown, 1 13 Horse armor, used in America, 55 Gothic armor, 38, 39, 48 Horse TRAPPINGS, XIII century, 74 Goto, Ichijo, 82, 83, 102 HOSHI-HIRO, 45 Gould, George J., 47 Hospice du Boeuf, Lyons, 80 Graz, 94 Huguenot effigies, 80 Greek armor, 23, 25 HuisH, 6 Greenwich, 129 Hunt, Mrs. Ridgely, 8 Grimani, 95 Hyslop, 57 guastalla, 94
Guimet, 76 I Guisarme, 138
Gun, Japanese, 1 19 Ichijo, 104
Guzman, Philip de, 95 Images from burial mound, i i Imamura, of Yu-Shiu-Kwan, 22 H Implements, armorers', 40, 62
Iro-iro-odoshi, 1
Hachi, 7, 20 Hachiman-za, 7, 9 J Halberd, 8, 31, 135 Hanbury, Colonel, 52 Jacob, Jacobe, Jacoby, 66, 129 Hancock-Clarke House, Lexington, 56 Jaime I, 73 Handbook of armor, 108 Japanese armor, earl\', 11,21
Haramaki-do, 1 Japanese armor. Hall of, 1 Harbor Hill, 29 Japanese helmet, dated 1850, 7 Harding, H. W., 127 Jargeau, 41 Harford, Canon, 43 Jeanne d'Arc, reputed casque of, 41 Hartford, (^onn., armorers, 56 JiMMu Tenno, period of, 11 Hatton, Sir (Christopher, 59, 6(), ()8 JoHANN Georg I, 95 Haussmann, 94 Johnson, Nathaniel, armor worn b\-. 57
Heaume, 1 14 Joi", 83 Hedwig of Brandenburg, 95 Ioline, Mrs. Adrian 11.. 102
145 INDEX
Jones, Paul, armor worn by, 57 LouBAT, Due de, 86 Julius II, 95 Louis XII, 30 Just, 62, 94 Louis XIII, 26, 30, 95 Louis XIV, 95 K Louvre Museum, 80 Lucerne, Arsenal of, 31 Kambanis, Michel L., 99 LuYNES, Ducde, 47, 90, 130, 134 Kaneiye, 13, 14,60,69,82, 102 Lyons, effigies from, 80
Kawasaki, Professor Chitora, of Tok\o, i 5 Keasbey, H. G., 48 M Keith, armor worn b\', 57 Kelch Shergat, 52 McCagg, Louis B., 4 KiNAi, 102 Mackay, Clarence H., 29, 30, 40, 47, 58, Klein, Ludwig, Dresden armorer, 40, 62, 106
1 10 MacMartin, Malcolm, 82 KONGARA-DOJI, 22 Macomber, Frank Gair, 47, 106 KONKWAN, 83 Madrid Armory, 132 Koran, 104 Magniac, 94 KORSEKE, 31, 140 Making, K.. 120 KosciuszKO, armor of, 57 Mansfield, Howard, 60, 70, 84 KOSHI-KUMO, 7 Marigoni, 88, 94 KOZANE, 22 Maruduk, sword of, 52 KUGE, 7 Masahiro, 83 KURAMA, 22 Masanori, 82
KUSAZURI, 22 Matsudaira, 1 19 KWANNON, 72 Matsuki sale, 9 Kyoto, 45 Matthias, Emperor, 39 Maximilian, 30 Maximilian armor, 35, 48 Mayence Arsenal, 88
Laffan, W. M., 3 Mayence, Electors of, sword, 47
Landesknecht, corselet, 3 i Medici, de', 95 Lang, Andrew, 41 Medina-Cei i, 94 Langeais, 94 Meiji, 14 b\ Lawrence, Stringer, armor worn , 57 Mene, Dr. Edouard, 71, 76 Lawrence, Sir Trevor, Collection, 6 Mexican stirrup, 53
Leask, Estelle, 1 12 Meyrick,47, 31,94,96 Leather, decorated, 4 Mezail, 42 Le Bon, 62 Miochin, 9, 43, 83, 102 Lee, Sir Harrx', 66, 68 MiSSAGLIA, 47, 50, 88 Lefferts, Dr. George M., 45 MiTO, 28 Lefferts, Marshall C., 43 MiTSUOKI, 83 Leicester, 66 MiTSUYUKi. See Goto Ichijo.
Le Page, 46 Monell, Ambrose, 47, 106, 1 10 Lesrel, 26 montaubon, 94 Lexington, Hancock-Clarke House, 56 .Montinengo, 95 Leyden, Count de, 87 MoNTPENSiER, Duc de, 90 L'Haridon, Panguilley, 92 MoRAN, Max, 94 LipPERHEiDE, Freiherr v., 23 Morgan, J. Pierpont, 47, 30, 32, 64, 86
Litchfield, Edward Hubbard, 47, 48, 106 Morgan, J. Pierpont, Jr., 130 LONDESBOROUGH, 38, 47, 94 iVloRioN, 4, 6, 8, 117 Longfellow, Skeleton in Armor, 56 MuNESUKE. See Myochin. Lorraine, Duke of, 94, 95 MuNEYOSHi, Tachibana, 83 146 INDEX
MuRAYAMA, Hashime, 122 Piccinino, Carlo, rapier by, 50 Museum case designed by W. H. Riggs, Pierrefonds, Castle of, 62 29 Pike, used in hunting, 140
Myochin (Miochin), 9, 45, 82, 83, 102 PiLLE, Henri, 92 Myochin Munesuke, raven by, 76 PiRNET, 46 PiZARRO, 55 N Plastron, Greek, 25 Poblet, marble relief from, 73 Nagatsune, 83 Pole-arms, 135 Nagazone, 9 Portuguese armor, 123 Nambu, Daimyoof, 9, 19 Portuguese gun barrel, 121 Nanako, 103 PoTiER, Baron, 12, 100
Naomasa, 1 19 pourtales, 94 Napoleon III, 92, 97 Powder horns, 8 Nardin, sword found at, 52 Preussing, Baron, 95 Natsuo (Kano), 61, 82, 83 Priests', Tibetan, casques, 3 Negroli, 47, 88 Prince, Professor, 53 Negroli, Paulus de, 97 Pujo, 94 Negroli, Philip, 130, 132 NiCHOL, R. T., 100 Q NiEUWERKIRKE, 92, 94, 96 NiKKO, 4 Quarrels, 8 NoBUNAGA, 121 Quiver, Renaissance, 100 NOETSU, 6 R o Radzivil, Nicolas von, 95 Octopus, 9 Raleigh, armor worn by, 56 Oglethorpe, armor worn by, 57 Rapiers, Mr. Morgan's gift of, 50 Olivieri, Pietro Paolo, 81 Ratcliffe. See Sussex. Orcana, Ramon d', 90 Raven by Myochin Munesuke, 76 Orleans, 41 Reggio, 126 Orletz, 98 Regnier, 32 Osaka, 45 Ressmann, Baron de, 92 OsuNA, 47 Restoration, 128 Ox-TONGUE, 139 Reubell, Jacques, 42 Revolution, American, armor worn in, 57 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 57 Rhinelander, T. J. Oakley, 47, 106 Palatine, Archbishops of Mayence, 30 Rhinelander, Mrs. William, 47 Panciatichi-Ximenes, Marquis, 88 Richards, 47 Panzerbrecher, 31 RiCHETTI, 88 Paris. See Artillery Museum. Riggs, Karrick, 106 Partisans, 139 RiGGS, Lawrason, 106 Pauilhac, Georges, 96 Riggs, William H., 26, 40, 4s, 58, 62, 85,
Payne-Galway, Sir Ralph, loi 86, 105, 1 12 Pell, Howland, 47, 106 Robinson, Edward, 106 Pell, William Cruger, 8 RocHAMBEAU, armor wom b\-, S7 Pembroke, Earl of, 68 Rook, Frederick Sherman, 46. 47
Penn, armor worn by, 57 ROSSCHINDER, I 38 Perry, Commodore, 13 ROUMENNE, 94 Philip 11, 30,47, 95 RovERE, della, 95 Phoenician short sword, 52 ROZIERH, 94 147 1 15
INDEX
Rumania, King of, 12 Stevenson, Cornelius, 47 RuNKA, 140 Stibbert, 88
Rupert, Prince, 44 Stirrup, Diane's, 1 12 RuTHERFURD, Lewis Morris, 34 Stockholm Museum, 43 Stone, George C, 53, 106 Stuyvesant, armor worn by, 57 Stuyvesant, Peter Gerard, 34 Stuyvesant, Rutherfurd, 12, 30, 34, 35, Sabre, Italian, 126 38, 40. 44 Saddle, XIII centur\', 74 Stuyvesant, Madame Rutherfurd, 47, 48 St. Maur, 94 Sussex, Earl of. Gauntlets, 58 Saint Pierre du Martroi Church, 41 42 Swedish HALBERD, 138 Saint Seine, 94 Swiss halberd, 136
Salade, 1 16 Sword, Assvrian, 52 Sanger, Colonel William C, 139 Sword-guard. See Tsuba. Sa-pa-ra, 52 Savoy, 39, 95 Scott, Sir Walter, 94 T Scudamore, Sir James, 59,63, 128
Scudamore-Stanhope, 63 Tachaux, Daniel, 40, 62, 64, 1 10, 129 Scythe, 139 Tachinochi, 28 Seitaka-Doji, 22 Takechika, 103, 104 Seki, Professor, of Tok\o, 15,22 Tama, 9 Sekijo, Coto, 83 Tamba, 21 Sendan, 4 Taro, Hachiman, 1
Senke, Baron, 1 19 Tarragona, 73 Seraing, 94 Teijo (goto), 83 Sessei, 72 Teikwan, 84 Seusenhofer, 30, 47 Tetsuwo, 102 Shinodare,8 Theel, 31
Shiraishi, General, of Sendai, i 5 Thirty Years' War, armor of, 26
Shiuko-Juisshiu, 22 Tibetan priests' casques, 3 Shoami, 102 Ticonderoga, 57 Short SWORD, Phoenician, 52 TiEPOLO, 88, 95 Sicilian headpiece, 26 Tojo, 104 Skelton, 96 Tokugawa, 13, 18, 120 Smith, George, 54 Tokugawa, leyasu, helmet of, 4 Smith, Sir John, 56, 68 Tokyo. See Uyeno Park.
Soju, 61 Toledo blade, 5 Solingen blade, 50 Tomb figures, 79 solothurn, 88 ToMiTA, Kojiro, 121, 122 soltykoff, 94, 97 ToMOTANi, Fukita, 8 Somin, 83 ToPF, Jacob, 66 SOTEN, 102 Tower of London, 68, 94
South Kensington Museum, 58,80 Tranquillity, Allamuchv, N. J., 39 la, Spangenhelm, 1 14 Tremouille, Marquis de 95 Spanish succession, 125 Trevulcio, 95 Spanner, 8 Tsuba, gift of, 13, 102 Spenser. 63 Tsuba, importance in Japanese art, 69 Spitzer, 38, 39, 47, 62, 94 Tsuba, loan collection of, 60, 82 Spontoon, 139 • Tsuba, picturing a Hollander, 4
Stafford, Lord, 39 Tsuba, primitive, 1
Stake, 62, 109, i 10 Tsuchi-Ningyo (burial images), I I
148 i 1 1
INDEX
tsukushi-boko, i i W
Tsushima, i tsuyuharai, 28 Wagner, 94
Tulwar, Rajput, 46 Wagner, Christian, 1 1 Turin Museum, 43 Wallace, Sir Richard, 68, 92, 97
Turkish saber, 46 War-Hat, Japanese, 1 19 Turkish siege of Vienna, 12 Washington, gorget worn by, 57 Weeder, Felix, 43 Welch, Alexander McMillan, 48, 106 U Whawell, S. J., 31 Wheellock pistols, Uboldo, 88 8, 43 Wheellock rifle, 8 Umbril, i 17 Wilton House, 68 Umetada, 102 Windsor, 68 Umetada, Kazuma, 83 WiNTHROP, Gov., Fitz-John, armor of, 56 Underhill, Captain, casque worn by, 56 Wolf, 47 Union League Club, exhibition of Jap- Worcester, 66 anese armor, 45 Worcester, Earl of, 68 Uraga, 13 Workshop, armorer's, 109 Urbino, Duke of, 132 USPENSKY, 98 Y Uyeno Park, Tokvo, Museum, 1
Yasuchika, 82 V yokozuna, 28 yoritomo, 22 Vanderburg, Professor, 53 Yoshihiro, Kanshiro, 102 Vendome, 94 yoshitsune, 18 Vienna, collection in, 43, 66, 132 Younghusband Expedition, 3 Vienna, Turkish siege of, 12 Yu-Shiu-Kwan, 22 ViOLLET LE Dug, 92, 96 ViscoNTi, 95
Vise, i 10 VouGE, 136 ZSCHILLE, 47
149
I :;m I
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