The Armour Archive

Sean M

Rothwell Jack (978 words) Author(s): Maria Hayward The Rothwell Jack belongs to Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell, which is on the outskirts of Leeds. It is made from multiple layers of plain weave linen and carded wool (see cards and carding of wool) that have been hand-stitched together with linen th...

Sean M

Also, for what it's worth, when my academic publications start to come out I will either post them on my website or give an address where you can ask me for a copy. But they picked Brill which is not really interested in selling to anyone except rich libraries.

Sean M

I am not really up to summarizing a 2-4 page long, very dense article. Since people are interested I will scan the section on the jack when I am copying parts for my notes ... I just can't say when. How is the Brill free online search limited? The unlimited online access is not cheap. Brill Online- ...

Sean M

Did they just shimmy them on like we did or would they actually have some form of enclosures on the front to make them easier to get in? Usually, they pulled a coat of mail like a sweater or a polo shirt. http://manuscriptminiatures.com/media/manuscriptminiatures.com/original/388-1.jpg But its hard...

Sean M

At what level of detail do they go into? Do they discuss whether each item is Z or S spun, combed or carded, Fineness, etc? Entries range from a few hundred to a few thousand words. Its an encyclopedia covering a thousand year period, not a catalogue of surviving pieces. Its the kind of book you vi...

Sean M

By the mid-to-late 15th century, paintings show that the part of hosen which covers the bum was often lined in linen (like this painting of saints by the Master of Ambrogio Saraceni ) This is already mentioned in an English noble's account from 1393/4 (Baildon, W. Paley (1911). XXII.—A Wardrobe Acco...

Sean M

They probably cared more to know if at the end of the day their brain will be inside the skull or inside the lining. And they could always say "make it like the one over there" or "make it like the Burgundians wear." They were not trying to communicate with strangers on the Internet or readers deca...

Sean M

Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth, Maria Hayward eds., Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles c. 450-1450 (Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2012) There is lots in here which makers would find useful, although some entries will be frustrating if you don't have a big lib...

Sean M

Gaukler, Tod's Foundry, and Lorifactor all carry brass buckles.

Sean M

It would also be good to know what alloy they used for these sleeves. Copper-tin alloys work just fine for armour! If Alan Williams tested rings from a latoun border, that would be great. I don't remember whether I was able to find any other metallurgical analyses of medieval latoun armour, but ther...

Sean M

I experimented a bit this weekend ... we will see how successfully when I baste the first leg together. Sarah Thursfield has interesting suggestions on how to cut the style of hosen from around 1500 efficiently in The Medieval Tailor's Assistant figure 7-32.

Sean M

I don't think I am Armstreet's target market, but if I fought SCA heavy, I would absolutely be interested in a cut steel visor. My approach would be to look at what people in the 14th century used to fight with clubs and follow that as closely as possible. I would look to the kind of designs which t...

Sean M

Wallace Collection Mail Sleeves A10 and A11 are totally latten rings with tinning. http://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=60501&viewType=detailView However, this pair of mail sleeves were probably intended only for parade or ceremon...

Sean M

You can use Adrian Harmand's drawings , and his statement that the armscye has a circumference of 103 cm ("La grande assiette ... forme une circonférence d'environ 1m 03 qu'il s'agit d'adapter à l'entournure du corps du pourpoint représenté par la figure 13 ..."), to figure out the dimensions of the...

Sean M

Well, I admit my ignorance regarding photographic equipment, but that means that we will have to wait quite some time before museums will allow somebody else to photograph their stuff with "our" parameters in mind. Gustovic, remember that even closing down a gallery and opening the cases costs mone...

Sean M

At first thought, it sounds a bit like leaving your seat-belt unfastened so you will be "safely" thrown through the windshield between the steering wheel and the roof. But, these guys were doing this within the context of an activity where you can expect all Hell to break loose rather frequently. S...

Sean M

Pretty much all the headpieces in that passage are helms eg. Messire Jehan de Hollande consieuvy le dit messire Regnault en la lumiere de son heaulme; mais le coup n’eut point de force: je vous diray pourquoy. https://www.hrionline.ac.uk/onlinefroissart/browsey.jsp?AbsDiv=ms.f.transc.Bre-3&AbsPb=Bre...

Sean M

There is a reference in Froissart, Vol. III, chapter cxv. to a deed of arms between Sir Thomas Hapurgan, and Sir John des Barres. It was then the usage (or at least, it seemed to me that it was) that one laced on their bascinet with a mere thong ( une seule laniere ), so that the point of the lance...

Sean M

The dealer said it came from the Bikaner armoury. People who like Indian arms and armour know that story better than I do.

Sean M

LindyBeige owns a coat of mail-and-plates with a Devengali inscription saying it was captured at the Siege of Adoni (possibly the one in 1688/9). He has some closeup photos and comments in one of his videos The part on his armour starts at around 4:30 and continues for ten minutes https://www.youtub...

Sean M

This old guy in the Nine Worthies on the outside of the Sommerhaus at Runkelstein has the most globulose breast I can think of from circa 1400. That is towards the later end of my interest though ... plenty of Fioreists have kits in the style of 1420, so I focused on an earlier period. I can't spar...

Sean M

In his book on the clothing of Jean d'Arc, Adrien Harmand cites a tailors' rule from Troyes from May 1400. This week I found it in the Ordonnances des rois de France de la troisième race, Huitième Volume . This rule is all in French. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1189716/f407.image Rule 8 p....

Sean M

Too few reenactors pad out their doublets properly! It does tend to complicate the tailoring. I don't think that the problem is the padding, its the cutting. If you cut the shape of a modern off-the-rack jacket, then that is what you will get, however many layers you use and however much cotton you...

Sean M

These images are eye-opening. If you (or anyone else) could find the right photos of the Visconti statue for a photoshop overly it might be very instructive. Mac From seeing a panorama of the room with that statue, its hard to photograph (high and no natural light). The usual front view is http://p...

Sean M

Since you have made one of his doublets, where do his armscyes sit relative to the point of the shoulder (where the knob of the humerus meets the clavicula and the shoulder blade)? Looking at the pictures, I am worried that he does that weird modern tailoring thing where the shoulder sits partially ...

Sean M

Then I would look into the materials used for arming doublets in the late 15th or 16th century. A medium-weight outer layer made from flax/cotton/hemp/silk, a heavy but not too densely-woven middle layer made from hemp or linen, a lightweight inner layer made from linen or silk, and a moderate amoun...

Sean M

Could you tell us what style of armour you want to make? (Even if this is a fantasy project, that fantasy culture probably has a 'look'). That affects the design and the look of the arming clothing. In your part of the world, I would be tempted to line it with silk or a silk/linen or silk/hemp blend...

Sean M

John Lydgate knew about these in England in the 1410s https://bookandsword.com/armour-in-texts/lydgates-troy-book/ And some of hem gan ful streite lace (III.44) Her doubbettis made of lyne cloth, A certeyn fold þat a-boute hem goth; And some also dempte most surest To armen hem for bataille of arest...

Sean M

One of my favourite depictions of the front of a globulose pair-of-plates is http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4365/16762/ That has one big breast-plate, but it does not cover the whole rib cage: the natural waist and the belly seem to be protected with lames. That is 50 years before Agincourt, but wh...

Sean M

Henrik, I think its important to keep the overall shape separate from the details of the structure. So of course a man-at-arms in 1415 is going to have a globulose profile, whether he creates that with a quilted coat, or an uncovered breastplate, or a covered cuirass. But if you want to know the num...

Sean M

Sean, thanks for posting this. This is very helpful in some research I have been doing about Thomas Chaucer. Glad to help! When you have made your first draft on soft kit, you might also want to read "TH’ apparell for the feld for a baron in his souvereyn compeny, or for a baneret, or a ryche bache...

Sean M

I think they usually show up in documents as a "fringe of mail," or "with a bit of mail at the ..." or language like that. I don't have time to look for examples of fringes at the waist specifically, but I can't recall any before 1400 ... fringes at the knee are older (they show up on the Pistoia Al...

Sean M

Anyone who wants an Agincourt-era kit should probably read

Thom Richardson (2015) Armour in Henry V’s Great Wardrobe, Arms & Armour, 12:1, 22-29, DOI: 10.1179/1741612415Z.00000000045

I am pretty sure that you can download it without a subscription here

Sean M

I have one of Piotr's bascinets with visor and padded aventail and can recommend his work. As he said, he can add a visor if you need it for your kind of medieval fun.

Sean M

Could this helmet also have been a way of showing off: 'look, my armourer can make something this big and beautiful in a single piece of steel'? In Augusto's interpretation, the gap under the skirt of steel would have been frightening (but if the skirt comes closer to the breastplate, then the weare...

Re: Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles

Re: Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles

Re: Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles

Re: 14th Century Chain Shirt Questions

Re: Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles

Re: Laying Out Hosen

Re: Sallet from a can

Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles

Re: Buckles for straps - where to buy?

Re: Gilted maille armour

Re: Laying Out Hosen

Re: What do you think about laser-cut visors?

Re: Gilted maille armour

Re: Making an arming doublet

Re: Image juxstaposition of helmets on a head

Re: Image juxstaposition of helmets on a head

Re: Image juxstaposition of helmets on a head

Re: Image juxstaposition of helmets on a head

Re: LindyBeige on his Indian mail-and-plates

LindyBeige on his Indian mail-and-plates

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.

For Francophones, the Troyes' Tailors Rule of 1400

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.

Re: Making an arming doublet

Re: Making an arming doublet

Re: Making an arming doublet

Re: Early XV c. mail "mini-fauld"

Re: IWTB an English Man-at-Arms at Agincourt

Re: IWTB an English Man-at-Arms at Agincourt

Re: IWTB an English Man-at-Arms at Agincourt

Re: Early XV c. mail "mini-fauld"

Re: IWTB an English Man-at-Arms at Agincourt

Re: For sale: New bascinet with lining and avential

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.