Tomaso and Antonio da Missaglia, the illustrious sire and son, were the great Milan armour-smiths of from the end of the first quarter to the close of the fifteenth century. To the first it seems certain that we are indebted for the form called “Gothic,” which was, however, merely a graceful improvement on the fashion immediately preceding it. There was nothing very abrupt in the transition, as was the case in the radical change from “Gothic” to “Maximilian.” The work of Tomaso is conspicuous for purity of style and nobility of form, and, from an artistic point of view, it has no rivals. Armour of his period was generally plain, but the more pronounced passion for decoration of the time found expression in the work of his son; an example of whose skill may be seen in the case of a helmet in the Tower of London, and at Vienna is the superb Gothic suit with pikeguards, already referred to, made for the Count of Gajazzo. Tomaso was, it is believed, the first master to use armourer’s marks. His monogram is the letter “M,” surmounted by a crown. The Negrolis, who worked after the Missaglias, seem to have been of the same family, and, as Boeheim points out, the name “Missaglia,” like that of Ferrara, seems to have originated as a “place” designation. Examples of the work of the Negrolis may be seen both at Vienna and Madrid. Their work represents the full swing of the “renaissance.” Milan, where the Missaglias worked, is not the only town in Italy where there is a Via degli Armorari and a Via degli Spadari, showing that there were then separate guilds for armour- and sword-making in that country. SIGMARINGEN SUIT. This beautiful “Gothic” suit, by Lorenz Kolman of Augsburg (Fig. 17), is said to have belonged to one of the Counts of Hohenzollern-Eitel. Demmin refers to it as being erroneously ascribed to Eitel Frederick I. of the thirteenth century. The mistake is obvious, as there were no Counts of Hohenzollern-Eitel then! There were two Eitel Fredericks in the fifteenth century. On consulting the Stammbaum at Hohenzollern it appears that Eitel Frederick I. reigned 1426–1439. Jost Nicolaus I. ” 1439–1488. Eitel Frederick II. ” 1488–1512. And the character of the armour conforms closely to the early portion of the reign of the last-named. There was no later “Eitel Frederick.” A later suit, made for this Eitel Frederick about 1510, is now at Vienna. It is “Maximilian” and partly fluted, and very possibly by the same master; for we see by the Berne example, referred to somewhat later in these pages, that Lorenz Kolman turned out Maximilian armour after that fashion had superseded the “Gothic.” [Illustration: Fig. 17.--Gothic Suit at Sigmaringen.]