Jim, very familiar with Mr. Schmitt ( his ID'ed work often trades at the same value as low to mid level Renaissance originals ). I don't know if you'd seen this before
http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_schmidt.html but the interactive feature of the article allowing you to compare Schmitts work with the originals he was copying is neat
http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_schmidt_comp.html. Having seen and owned a few very nice Victorian reproductions built using some original components ( something I understand Mr.Schmitt did on occasion, using an original armour component and constructing a harness around it to match ) my first thought when my friend showed it to me was that it was Victorian. As the evening went on and I contiued to handle the piece I had a harder and harder time ignoring the symbols in the guard and the possible fraternal/Freemasonic character they may have.