Beschreibung:

AN ENGLISH SHOT-PROOF STEEL TARGET OF NOTABLE WEIGHT, 17TH CENTURY of convex oval form, fitted at its centre with a low rosette-shaped boss and pierced at its upper end, just below the proof-mark of a bullet, with a flanged horizontal vision-slit, the flanged edge of the target turned outwards at its upper end to form a loop, cut with a horizontal slot at it right side and notched at its lower end, its rear fitted with a quilted lining of buff-leather and the remains of a pair of enarmes 59.5 cm; 23½ in high Provenance Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick Goodrich Court, Herefordshire Leonard Brassey, Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire, sold Christie's, 21st February 1923, lot 152, purchased by Dr Bashford Dean acting on behalf of Clarence Mackay of Long Island, New York (Cat. No. C-32) William Randolph Hearst, sold Gimbel Brothers, New York, 31st October 1941 JWHA Inv. No. 2668 Literature Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick & Joseph Skelton, Engraved Illustrations of Ancient Arms and Armour from the Collection at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire, Vol. I, London, 1830, pl. LXV, 1 J. R. Planché, Catalogue of the Armour and Miscellaneous Objects of Art Known as the Meyrick Collection…exhibited at the South Kensington Museum, London, 1869, Cat. No. 866 Exhibited South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum), London, 1869-71 The shield can be compared with one from the armoury of the Earls of Warwick at Warwick Castle (Francis Grose Military Antiquities respecting a History of the English Army from the Conquest to the Present Time, Vol. II, London, 1812, p. 358, plate 48) sold in these rooms on 25 June 2008, lot 345. Its weight suggests that it was intended for siege use.