Skip to main content

Breastplate (body armour): HEN.M.2C-1933

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 31 (Armoury)

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Breastplate for light field use, decorated with bands in the 'black and white' fashion. Formed in one piece, in the late 'peascod' fashion, with a flange at the waist. Its arm and neck-openings have plain, inward turns. Modern, single-ended, tongued iron buckles to receive the shoulder-straps of a backplate are secured by single, flat-headed rivets at each shoulder. Attached at each side of the waist-flange by single, round-headed rivets with octagonal or square internal washers, are three leather straps for the suspension of tassets. Holes pierced to the inside of the inner and outer rivets at each side probably represent former attachment points for the straps. Part of the composite half-armour HEN.M.2A-E-1933

Notes

History note: Mr James Stewart Henderson of 'Abbotsford', Downs Road, St Helen's Park, Hastings, Sussex.

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Measurements and weight

Depth: 18 cm
Height: 44 cm
Weight: 2.17 kg
Width: 36.5 cm

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart

Dating

17th Century, Early#
Production date: circa AD 1610

Note

The breastplate is decorated with raised bands and borders against a blackened ground in the 'black and white' fashion. The border at the neck is of ogee form. The borders at the arm-openings bulge inwards between the vertical bands.

The bright bands of the breastplate show fairly heavy pitting and patination around the neck-opening and a medium pitting and patination elsewhere. The intervening blackened areas are worn through to bright metal at some points.

Components of the work

Buckles composed of iron (metal)
Straps composed of leather
Bands And Borders
Decoration

Materials used in production

Steel

Techniques used in production

Hammering : Formed in one piece, in the late 'peascod' fashion, with a flange at the waist; hammered, shaped, with banded decoration
Patinating
Forming

Identification numbers

Accession number: HEN.M.2C-1933
Primary reference Number: 17712
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Wednesday 14 September 2022 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Breastplate (body armour)" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/17712 Accessed: 2024-11-15 02:19:54

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/17712 |title=Breastplate (body armour) |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-15 02:19:54|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-17712

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...