This elbow would have been part of an extremely nice, but still not princely armor. The decoration is similar to that on Allen item number A-241, but it is nicer. It has very nice roping, and it has etching in the border and on top of the leaves.
German Black and White Elbow mid 16th cent.
Elbow cop. Floating (originally held to the arm with a strap and buckle around the elbow and a pin suspending it from the upper arm). Decorated with raised foliage against a rough background (likely originally blackened). Raised areas with simple etched decoration. Recessed border with high quality etched decoration of foliage with 'dot' background. This elbow was claimed by the previous owner (optimistically) to have been formerly in the collection of Stephen Granscay. Since he also claimed it was in the Allentown exhibit, maybe he was thinking of the elbow later added to my collection as item number A-221 which better matches the description and includes appropriate collection tags. Traced back to lot 504 from the Sothebys European Works of Art sale held in New York November 25, 1986. [inv. num. A-96]