Breastplate (body armour): HEN.M.111-1933

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

• Breastplate (body armour)

Categories

• Armour

Description

Breastplate, for heavy cavalry use, decorated with fluting in the 'Maximilian' fashion. Formed of a strongly rounded main plate with moveable gussets at the arm-openings, a separate waist-plate and a folding lance-rest. The very shallow neck-opening of the main plate and the gussets have boldly roped inward turns emphasised by pairs of incised lines between each 'strand' of the roping. The main plate is pierced at the right armpit with a pair of vertically-aligned holes and, below them, with a further single hole for the attachment of a folding lance-rest. The latter is secured by two screws with internal, slotted cheese-heads, passing through the upper of the pair of holes and the isolated single hole, into its threaded base-plate. The curved base-plate is decorated with filed, radiating lobes that are alternately cross-hatched and plain. The hinged, curved arm of the lance-rest is decorated with close-set, filed grooves, forming serrations, on its front face and tip, and with geometrical patterns of filed lines, mostly paired, on its underside and ends. Except at its top and sides, the main plate of the breastplate is decorated with twenty-four, vertical, slightly diverging flutes, beneath three horizontal flutes separated by raised ribs emphasised by pairs of incised lines. The gussets at the arm-openings are secured to the main plate by modern, round-headed rivets with octagonal washers at their upper and lower ends. Those at the upper ends move within slots in the gussets. Attached to the scalloped top end of each gusset by a single, externally-flush rivet is a double-ended buckle with a central tongue, filed decoration and a plain, round-headed hasp. The right buckle is a modern restoration made to match the left. Fitted within the lower edge of the main-plate and secured to it by three modern round-headed rivets with octagonal internal washers (missing from the left one), is a waist-plate which is flanged outwards and pierced with a vertical slot at either end for the attachment of a missing skirt. The waist-plate is decorated at the waist-line with three fine, close-set, incised lines.

Notes

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

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Place(s) associated

• Nuremburg

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

16th Century, Early#
Production date: circa AD 1520

Note

South German, Nuremberg

The breastplate is bright with light to medium pitting overall. The turns at the arm-openings are perforated by corrosion at some points.

This very striking and rounded breastplate is decorated with fluting in the ‘Maximilian’ fashion which was common in the early 16th century. It was used by the heavy cavalry who fought on horseback with lances. The curved arm is a lance rest which was used to help steady and manoeuvre the lance when going into battle. It is hinged so that it could be folded up out of the way.