In the case of mail a small label is sometimes found, riveted on to the fabric, on which is the maker’s stamp; an example of this is the eagle which is stamped on a label attached to the mail skirt G, 86, in the Armeria Reale, Turin (see Table of Marks, 59). In brigandines we sometimes find each of the small plates stamped with the maker’s mark, which is held to be evidence of “proof.” As we have seen from the entry under the date 1448, on page 65, the single stamp signified proof against the small crossbow and the double stamp proof against the heavy windlass-bow. As has been noticed above, the forgery or imitation of marks is more common on sword-blades than on defensive armour, and of these the wolf, dog, or fox of Passau is most frequently imitated. In some instances the representation is more or less life-like, but in others there is simply a crude arrangement of straight lines that suggest the head, legs, body, and tail of the animal. Stamping of armour was practised early in the middle of the fourteenth century, as will be seen in the Regulations of the Company of Heaumers transcribed in Appendix B. In Rymer’s _Fœdera_ (XIX, p. 312) we find accounts for repairing and remodelling armour in the year 1631, and at the end of the list comes the entry “For stamping every harness fit to be allowed £ 0 0 0”, which shows that even armour that was remade from old material was subjected to tests, and also that these tests were recorded by a gratuitous stamp of the craftsman or of the company to which he belonged. The only entry extant which actually refers to the making of these stamps for armourers is given in the _Mem. de la Soc. Arch. de Touraine, T. XX, pp. 268-9_ (_Arch. de Tours, Grandmaison_). 1470. A Pierre Lambert orfèvre, la somme de 55 s. t. ... pour avoir fait et gravé 6 poinsons de fer acérez pour marquer les harnois blancs et brigandines qui seroient faiz et délivrez en lad. ville, de la façon que le roy l’avait ordonné, et pour avoir retaillé et ressué 2 desd. poinsons qui estoient fenduz en marquant les harnois. A Jehan Harane orfèvre, pour avoir gravé les armes de la ville en 2 poinsons de fer pour marquer les harnois et brigandines vendues en lad. ville 30 s. The number of armourers’ marks known at present amounts to several hundred, but of the majority nothing is known as to ownership and history. A few of the principal marks in English and Continental collections are given on page 148. FOOTNOTES: [77] Gaya, _op. cit._ [78] _Revue Savoisienne_, 1906, fasc. 4. [79] Panzer, body-armour. [80] _Cat. Armeria Reale Turin_, 129. [81] _Rev. Savoisienne_, 1906, fasc. 4, p. 3. [82] Edit. 1756, p. 58. [83] A half-suit in the possession of H. Moffat, Esq., Goodrich Court, formerly the property of New College, Oxford, has a heavy “plastron” or reinforcing piece. The bullet has dented this and also the cuirass underneath. The head-piece and back-plate are pierced by bullets.