Production: Unknown
Breastplate with associated skirt, for light field use, decorated with bands in the 'black and white' fashion. Formed of main plate with moveable gussets at the arm-openings and an associated skirt of two lames. The medially-ridged main plate dips down to the centre of the waist, and projects forward over the belly. The gussets and the broad, shallow neck-opening have bold, file-roped, inward turns. Secured by a single externally-flush rivet within the upper end of each gusset is a double-ended, tongued iron buckle to receive the shoulder-strap of a backplate. The lower edge of the breastplate is flanged outwards to receive a skirt of two upward overlapping lames. The lames are attached to one another and to the breastplate at their outer ends by modern round-headed rivets with octagonal or square internal washers. The lower edge of the second lame of the skirt is cut with a shallow arch over the crotch. The arch has a file-roped inward turn. The lame is pierced over the arch with a possibly modern hole for the attachment of a cod-piece. Riveted at each side of the second lame is a modern strap for the suspension of tassets. A third strap may at some time have existed between them, but is now represented only by a plugged hole. Vacant rivet holes, representing former articulation-points, exist at the upper corners of the first lame of the skirt. Part of the composite half armour HEN.M.3A-E-1933
History note: Mr James Stewart Henderson of 'Abbotsford', Downs Road, St Helen's Park, Hastings, Sussex
J.S. Henderson Bequest
Depth: 19.0 cm
Height: 48.0 cm
Weight: 3.34 kg
Width: 43.0 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart
16th Century
Circa
1570
CE
-
1580
CE
South Germany, Nuremberg
The breastplate is decorated with recessed, bright bands and borders against a blackened ground in the 'black and white fashion'. The vertical bands are medially-ridged. The associated skirt is decorated in a similar fashion, with raised bright bands and borders against a blackened ground.
The bright bands of the breastplate and skirt show a light patination with some patches of heavier pitting. The intervening blackened areas are worn through to bright metal at some points.
Buckle
composed of
iron (metal)
Leathers
composed of
leather
Arm-openings
Decoration
Main Plate
Parts
Hammering
: Formed of main plate with movable gussets at the arm-openings and an associated skirt of two lames; hammered, shaped, riveted, with banded decoration in 'black and white' fashion with medially-ridged vertical bands
Forming
Accession number: HEN.M.3C-1933
Primary reference Number: 17720
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
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/17720 Accessed: 2024-11-25 14:15:09
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/17720
|title=Breastplate (body armour)
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-25 14:15:09|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-17720
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