Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England

by G. W. Eve

Fig. 187.—Panel in Chiselled Iron. Sixteenth Century.

A very beautiful work, also in chiselled iron, is the panel of the armorial insignia of the Emperor Charles V, the Arms with the Columns the latter rising from waves of the sea, being the device that represented the Pillars of Hercules and the motto “plus oultre” (Fig. 187). The arms are encircled with the collar of the Toison d’Or very boldly treated. The work is Spanish of the early sixteenth century, and is notable for its exquisite finish as well as for its general excellence of design and drawing.

Fig. 188.—Key with the Arms of an Archbishop.
Eighteenth Century.

Fig. 189.—Key. Eighteenth Century.

Examples of keys, also from the Spitzer Collection, are given in Figs. 188 and 189. The former bears the arms of a Cardinal Archbishop, and the latter, which is excellently pierced and chiselled, has two lions supporting a badge, a crowned castle. Each is of good design, its use and material having been well considered so that it is of a decorative shape that does not impede its usefulness. The latter is full of minute and exquisite detail, indistinguishable in the illustration. Besides the decoration of the barrel with a spiral band, there are eagles’ heads on its wards and the words “vive le roi” are twice inscribed on it in letters of gold.

The beautiful and elaborate repoussé and engraved work that was very largely employed in the decoration of metal in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, found full scope in the magnificent armour in which the greatest artists and the most skilful craftsmen combined their forces to make a gift that should be worthy of a princely hand. Repoussé decoration consisted for the most part of the allegorical and mythological subjects that were so fashionable at the period, and comparatively little heraldry was done in that way. Engraving and etching, on the other hand, were extensively used to decorate metal with arms and badges.

In the execution of repoussé work a metal plate is fixed down to a bed of pitch, a material which affords an efficient support while being soft enough to yield to the shaping metal as it is hammered and punched into the designed form. The work is afterwards chased and finished on the face, but the essential quality is, of course, that of being modelled into relief from behind. A very beautiful piece of repoussé work is the quadrangular buckler, of late sixteenth century work, in the Royal Armoury at Stockholm, which was bought in Holland by Charles XV of Sweden (Fig. 190). The design is a fine bold treatment of the Arms of the Visconti, and the workmanship is probably Italian. There is a backplate with repoussé arms in the same collection.