Council bought it as it was, paying six gulden per hundredweight for it. The railing, still incomplete, was allowed to lie neglected in the cellars of the Rathaus for some years. But at last it was finished and erected. For when the Council heard on good authority that Count Otto Heinrich of the Palatinate was anxious to secure it in order to adorn his castle at Neuburg therewith, they were afraid lest if they did not put it to some immediate use they might be forced into the position of having no excuse for not making a present of it to that powerful nobleman. They therefore hastily commissioned Hans Vischer, “the Bronze-founder,” to complete the work—for a quarter of it still remained uncast—and to set it up in the Rathaus. This, accordingly, he did, and erected it on the 19th of April, 1540, twenty-seven years after the Fugger family had first ordered it for their chapel. It was used for the purpose of dividing the western portion of the great Hall, where the Court of Justice held its sessions, from the rest of the room. The total cost of the work amounted to 2,796 gulden. But so admirable did the Council find it that they actually made a present of one hundred and fifty gulden to the craftsman in addition to the price named, as a token of their pleasure and satisfaction. [Illustration: STEIN PHOTO.] [FORMERLY AT NÜRNBERG 25. THE RATHAUS RAILING] Unfortunately, the history of the misadventures of this railing is not yet finished. It was removed in 1806 by the Bavarian Government, and, just for the mere value of the metal contained in it, sold to a merchant in Fürth. From him it passed again into the possession of a Nuremberger, and some years later found its way to the South of France. There all trace of this beautiful work of art has disappeared, and one is forced to the reluctant conclusion that it was melted down by the purchaser for the sake of the bronze of which it was composed. Our knowledge of it at the present day is owing to a careful set of drawings which were made of it in 1806, and which have been reproduced excellently and in full detail by Dr. Lübke in the work to which we have so often referred. The Railing was of bronze throughout, wrought with equal care and finish on both sides, and composed of one hundred and fifty-eight separate pieces. In length it measured nearly forty feet, and stood sixteen feet high, rising at the highest point to twenty-five feet. The drawings which have come down to us show that the fertility of the artist’s invention did not interfere with his harmonious conception of the whole. For though there is a truly wonderful wealth of decorative detail, all in the style of the full Renaissance, it is admirably arranged and subdued to its proper proportion.