Detached elements of armor are valued by specialists for their individual aesthetic qualities as well as for the evidence they provide of the original form and decoration of the complete harness. This plate served as the lowermost front collar lame of a helmet embossed in low relief with grotesque ornament in the style of the Parisian goldsmith-engraver Étienne Delaune (1518/19–1583). The helmet, now lacking its collar, is preserved in the Musée de l'Armée, Paris, and originally formed part of a lost parade armor that was made about 1570 for the future Henry III of France (1551–1589, r. 1574–89). The appearance of the harness, which was covered with foliate scrolls inhabited by allegorical figures, lions, snakes, and fantastic beasts, is recorded in a contemporary portrait of the young prince. Prior to ascending the French throne, Henry ruled briefly as king of Poland (1572–74), where he appears to have left behind his splendid armor. Our collar plate and presumably the Paris helmet were preserved in the armory of powerful Polish magnates, the Radziwills, in their castle at Nieswicz. The collar plate was given by Prince Albrecht Radziwill to Stephen V. Grancsay, the Metropolitan's assistant curator of Arms and Armor, in 1927 and was acquired by the donor from Grancsay a half century later.