Fig. 443.—French knight, c. 1330.
PLATE XXXIII*
Armour of Charles V., made by Colman
A. F. Calvert
It may be stated as a general fact that no authentic suits anterior to the year 1400 are in existence, although many separate pieces are preserved which were made before that year, chiefly helmets, mail, gauntlets, and a few pieces of plate. The same may be said of the armour prevailing from 1400 to 1440, though larger and more numerous portions of it exist, but of the Gothic armour which came into being after that date a number of complete suits are extant. Germany was almost the sole maker of this description of defence, and not only are the majority of suits of this period of German make, but Germany itself has for long been the happy hunting-ground of collectors, and was at one time deemed almost inexhaustible. There are many German armourers whose names have been handed down upon the roll of fame, but the most honoured bore the name of Colman. This family had settled in Augsburg in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and gradually established a reputation; the most famous and best known being Lorenz Colman, who began work in 1467. He was patronised by Maximilian, King of the Romans, a few years later, and appointed Court Armourer in 1490. In conjunction with the emperor there can be no doubt that the Maximilian style was evolved in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Lorenz died in 1516, and an example of his workmanship dating from 1515 may be seen in a cap-à-pie suit in the Wallace Collection. His successor, Koloman Colman, surnamed Helmschmied, produced many wonderful examples of skilled workmanship, such as are exemplified in his suits constructed for the Emperor Charles V. ([Plate XXXIII.*]), and preserved in the Royal Armoury at Madrid.[2] In [Plate XXX.*], the large tilting-piece, comprising grande garde, volante piece, and pauldron in one defence, is remarkable, while the pair of gauntlets belonging to the same monarch and illustrated in [Plate XXXII.*], are admittedly the most superb examples in existence. The magnificent flutes, together with the delicate enrichments of the gadlings, have probably never been equalled. The style of ornamentation agrees exactly with that of Colman Helmschmied.