The Armour Archive

Sean M

My greaves are just 1/2" longer in the side of the ankles than I would really like. I can walk in them fine, but they are hard on the sides of my shoes, and the greaves I see in trecento art don't extend much below the bump at the bottom of the tibia. (15th century Italian greaves seem to be a bit l...

Sean M

Jason, that could be, but it is not my favourite theory. Scales in art usually have a curved top or bottom edge, all the scales are usually the same colour, and the different rows are offset from one another. The "brick pattern" often shows some sign of the rivets or laces, all the bricks are usuall...

Sean M

Peter, I think that is the cervelliere I was thinking of. I like your idea from a practical standpoint although I wish I could think of a surviving example before the 16th century.

Sean M

Is "The Tudor Tailor" worth getting for someone of my interests? I am very interested in learning skills which can be documented in late medieval and early modern clothing, as long as the evidence for those skills is clearly laid out; I am not interested in making 16th century English clothing or un...

Sean M

Painters sometimes show soldiers wearing helmets with a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. There is one on an altar wing in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, GM 1053. Pretty sure I have seen another in a manuscript illumination.

Can anyone think of examples?

Sean M

Am I seeing a tasset which will hang from one strap on the fore-fauld and one strap on the rear-fauld? Seems like it would add unnecessary bother in putting on the armour, but I don't know this style. I am a bit surprised that nobody is selling those capped rivets yet. Focusing on one task for a few...

Sean M

And a relief caught my eye, it was from the middle of the 14th century and showed two soldiers with peculiar armored gloves - fingers with small scales as per norm but the metacarpal plate and the cuff had no distinction but the cuff clearly was made from supple leather, there were wrinkles, while ...

Sean M

Another observation: I'm surprised how short the doublet sleeves are. My eye is used to 14th century fashion where the cuff would cover the back of the hand as often as not. That is an interesting detail in late 14th century fashion, isn't it! The kneeling man who Tasha put on the cover of her C de...

Sean M

I was thinking of hinged sides and a back opening, like on Japanese armour, too. Armour of the English Knight pages 116-119. Some classical Greek cuirasses are fastened by inserting a pin through a series of off-set loops alternating between the overlapping plate and the underlapping plate, but I ca...

Sean M

In the age of the high narrow waistline, its really common to wear a belt where the servant carrying wounded Agesilaus is wearing his. You don't need it if your outer layer is a doublet not a shirt or gown that needs gathering to create 'the look,' but that was still a common level to wear a belt.

Sean M

Humh ... I might do that, but I am tired of reaching out to people, and this is a tangent attached to a hobby.

I am not the intended audience for these books, but I try to imagine what other readers might be looking for.

Sean M

Two books on reconstructing English clothing circa 1485-1513 based on the Great Wardrobe Accounts of Henry VII and the early years of Henry VIII. https://www.etsy.com/listing/482981212/combined-book-offer-the-kings-servants Good parts: - Lots of details about the properties of textiles and their 16t...

Sean M

The tippet shows up briefly as an article of women's dress in The Queen's Servants. They are not sure what it means either.

Sean M

See Armour Bags viewtopic.php?f=1&t=184600

La Belle Compagnie calls them 'standards' but I would ask them for sources (they are probably thinking of http://www.wga.hu/html_m/m/memling/4ursula/) http://www.peelaffinity.net/?page_id=460

Sean M

I think that Tom B. is right that people who know hunting culture might be able to find other sources. I was guessing that the term was within parameters for period "creative" spelling. Italian spelling before they made everyone learn Tuscan is scary, and I don't have a good handle on the different ...

Sean M

Have you been in touch with primitive smelters like Darrell Markewitz http://www.warehamforge.ca/ ?

Sean M

Anyways, its nice when you can link a word to objects in museums and later artwork. I know that some SCA folks really like medieval feasting. The earliest usage of coltelliera in TLIO is from 1266 http://tlio.ovi.cnr.it/TLIO/ ("Inventario delle cose rubate a Ugolino di Ruggerotto," in La prosa itali...

Sean M

Karen Larsdatter's page on cooks helped me find the Coltellera in Scarpi's book from 1571 and I am fascinated! https://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/3353828122/in/album-72157615243725404/ Its one of those cases with a lid and a cord which wraps around the body of the case, runs through two loop...

Sean M

Thanks Mac! This thread is helping me see how you can go from photos or artwork to a functional arrangement of rivets and leathers and straps. I can see those double straps in the old B&W photo at.

http://www.historicenterprises.biz/jour ... lorian.jpg

Sean M

Mac, do you always make your own buckles and strap fittings? I would have thought it was more efficient to hire someone who specializes in bronze casting or locksmith's work, although maybe not when you are copying a single statue! I am enjoying seeing the strap arrangement which you chose. I wonder...

Sean M

May I commend to your attention "The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi" 1570 he was cook to 5 popes and in the plates that go with this work plate 13 "Various Knives" has a "Coltellera" with at least 6 knives in it. Interesting ... we don't seem to have a library copy so maybe I will let someone else chec...

Sean M

In late 14th century Italy, you could buy knives individually or by the dozen, or just buy a choltelliera of 6, 4, or 3 knives. Sometimes they are da servire (for serving) or da tavola (for table) and often it is specified that some knives are bigger than others. Sometimes it is specified that the k...

Sean M

How do you folks treat the seam allowance at the 'dogleg' behind the back of the knee? I am sewing the seam allowances on the long seam down to the left and right with a running stitch, as per Altichiero's paintings and Crowfoot et al., and that feels like a point where you want to slit the allowanc...

Sean M

The next step will be to put in a layer of cotton batting and quilt it in place. That's always trickier than it has any right to be. I wish I had a clever idea about getting my batting in place that did not involve any extra bulk. In the past, I have tried catching the batting up in a seam befofe t...

Sean M

I wondered about the gilt rivets on the Ferdinand of Aragon armour! I had not heard of this process for making rivets with iron shafts and brass heads before. Piotr just had a manufacturer make some larger-than-usual mushroom-headed brass rivets for my harness. C'mon guys, the one that must not be n...

Sean M

I have seen breastplates pierced with holes like that (there are some in Das Brigantinensymposium auf Schloss Tirol ) but always assumed that they were for the Kolbenturnier like those "diver's helms." Unless these are the kind of helm with a visor, and they have removed the normal lance-proof visor...

Sean M

Eureka! The painting of Wool Clothing in the Tacuinum from Milan (Nouvelle acquisition latine 1673, fol. 95) shows a pair of red and black long split hosen with a point in front hanging from a rod. There were other kinds of hosen, but it is good to see the one which I chose 20 years later and a few ...

Sean M

The guy in the Tacuinum , Nouvelle acquisition latine 1673, is also wearing something strange around his neck. http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/ConsulterElementNum?O=IFN-10538044&E=JPEG&Deb=90&Fin=90&Param=C So he has a hood worn in the boring way with his face in the face opening, and a short cloak, but w...

Sean M

Wow, good luck Keegan! Sometimes contractors and building suppliers in the US are not so smart at choosing appropriate materials and techniques for the local climate. (Or too smart at getting land zoned for building before they look up how often it floods/burns).

Sean M

Also from Pinterest , Morgan MS. G. 54 folio 6v Der Wälsche Gaste . It was probably painted at Trier in the Rheinland around 1380. https://bookandsword.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/morgan_ms_g_54_6r_der_waelsche_gaste.png Some of the text on their website suggests that the Evil One has been befuddlin...

Sean M

Left leg is pinned ready to sew the long seam. This one I am making a little looser. I tried on my right legharness over the hose, and I have about 3" between the top of the leather and the front point of the hose. It looks like Charlotte and Jeff J's solution of placing the front point of the hosen...

Sean M

Some other short cloaks. BNF Latin 757, man in red (thanks Tasha Kelly, original image at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8470209d/f713.item) One of the Tacuinum Sanitatis images of Hopus (hops) https://www.pinterest.com/pin/313140980311784143/ (thanks Ian LaSpina and Malina Opatpowiec . Edit:...

Sean M

The young prick who has pushed himself to the front of the crowd at the execution in this painting by Altichiero wears an interesting overgarment. https://bookandsword.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/00008321-mellini-1965-rear-view-of-young-arschloch-in-a-short-gown-e1481812436182.jpg I think it is a va...

Sean M

Found my pdf of Lilli Fransen, Anna Nørgaard and Else østergård, Medieval Garments Reconstructed: Norse Clothing Patterns ! I should get that in hardcopy one day, but at one point they gave away the PDF for free. Apparently another name for the long hose from Greenland is Museum No. D10613 They don'...

Sean M

My first right hosen is done except for inserting the eyelets into the canvas band inside the upper edge. These are a classic pattern with the tallest part in the front and centre. I have not tried adding a bit of extra width at the top of the back seam to make a 'flap', like in some interpretations...

Re: A vision of a dream - in progress, greaves

Re: Cheap Helmets with a Checkerboard Pattern

Re: Cheap Helmets with a Checkerboard Pattern

Re: Review "The King's Servants" and "The Queen's Servants"

Cheap Helmets with a Checkerboard Pattern

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: Charles de Blois garment on the road in Europe this summ

Re: Comfortable and Flexible, suspending your legs

Re: 1420's French effigy

Re: Comfortable and Flexible, suspending your legs

Re: Review "The King's Servants" and "The Queen's Servants"

Review "The King's Servants" and "The Queen's Servants"

Re: 16th C Tippet = Helm Decoration?

Re: leather luggage? 16th century?

Re: Sets of Knives in the Fourteenth Century

Re: Peters Ellrichhausen Project

Re: Sets of Knives in the Fourteenth Century

Re: Sets of Knives in the Fourteenth Century

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: Sets of Knives in the Fourteenth Century

Sets of Knives in the Fourteenth Century

Re: Suspending Hosen and Cuisses

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

Re: Jousting reinforcements... with holes???

Re: Suspending Hosen and Cuisses

Re: Short Pleated Cloaks

Re: A vision of a dream - in progress, greaves

Re: Short Pleated Cloaks

Re: Suspending Hosen and Cuisses

Re: Short Pleated Cloaks

Short Pleated Cloaks

Re: Suspending Hosen and Cuisses

Re: Suspending Hosen and Cuisses