To hear the 20 plus year story watch the first video. I know it's long. For the technical stuff you can see my eBay listing: www.ebay.com/itm/395487103039
On your Ebay listing there is a picture with words, do you know what the words are? the bottom one looks to be "PORTO" the top one looks to have a tilde above the "ão". good chance it's from Portugal or Brazil also the helmet looks reminiscent of conquistadors "Francisco Serrão" "João Serrão" look to be some possible names. I'd cross reference if they sailed out of Porto in Portugal
Those are the words I used to find Antonio De Brito. 500 years ago the Portuguese language was a bit different. The sir name would have been first and the first name afterward. There was a Brito in Brazil a little later on. 1600's and I believe they were related. There was also a Brito that was made it into Sainthood.
The dating of the hardware puts construction solidly before revival pieces existed. The construction methods and chemical makeup of the finish confirm early construction as well. The only thing that would be better would be a picture of him posing by the chairs.
The way they cured indicates a slower turning. The tacks and nails are made of pig iron. They don't even exist outside of Renaissance fairs past the invention of the blast furnace around 1700.
