The Armour Archive

Sean M

There are also a few in the Weltchronik in Trier http://manuscriptminiatures.com/search/?manuscript=4869

Sean M

One of the contracts for a small order of helmets in Filippo Negroli and his Contemporaries , just a few hundred, specifies that they should be like this model on this shelf in this shop. Not having examples right there to copy is another impossible thing that modern medieval artisans have to deal w...

Sean M

There is at least one poor soldier wearing a short-sleeved quilted coat in a fresco by Altichiero. I don't have time to find it.

Sean M

The decorative features we see in the armour existing from this time-frame that I have noticed are: 1) Added brass/latten bands. 2) Pointile work with a sharp punch on both brass and steel 3) Wiggle work on both brass and steel. 4) Some pierce work (I noticed a bascinet with a fluer-de-lys pierced ...

Sean M

Roeli Pilami has a photo of the 1340s sleeping guards from the Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame, Strassbourg. https://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipilami/1634883387/in/set-72157602508791796/ The scabbard of his falchion has a vertically-mounted buckle on the back. Ian LaSpina found this too, but he did no...

Sean M

I feel compelled to point out (even though it argues against what I was saying earlier) that Sir Walter seems to have a separate sword belt, and does not rely on his arse girdle to support his sword. You can see a short length of belt and its buckle sticking out below the sword cross, and the long ...

Sean M

I just realized the decorations on the scabbard you just linked from Maciej's gallery is based on one of the Leiden scabbards drawn in the article. Cool. :) -Gerhard Yes, I think that many people who can't read Dutch have Van Driel-Murray's two articles on medieval scabbards, and just use the pictu...

Sean M

Here, I was looking at the dagger handle pointing down without it falling out of its scabbard. Cool isn't it! And it was so common in art of that period that it was probably a real thing. If you copy the scabbard for a rondel dagger in Knives and Scabbards , but fit the 'cup' enclosing the rondel w...

Sean M

To my mind there has been a lot more ratiocination , inventive speculation, and search for alternatives than straight-up trying what's in the pictures and seeing how it works. I recommend starting with a good tight fitting arse girdle and then moving on to trying to hang a sword from it. The worse ...

Sean M

If you're curious to see what some of the finer examples of reproduction wood-core scabbards look like these days, here are some of the top makers who try to maintain an eye towards historicity. http://artofswordmaking.com/ http://sulowskiswords.com/ http://www.robert-moc.sk/ Obviously, being craft...

Sean M

Back in 2010, Will McLean noticed that on a few effigies and brasses, short decorated straps connect the scabbard to the plaque belt at an angle https://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.nl/2010/11/one-way-to-attach-scabbard-to-plaque.html - Effigy of Lodewijk van Lichtervelde, Heer van Koolskamp (+1375...

Sean M

This was originally published in a rare Dutch archaeological report as "Zwaardscheden en andere vondsten uit de 14de eeuw uit de Marktenroute te Leiden" and is now available in English as "Fourteenth-century sword sheaths from Leiden city centre." In Quita Mould (ed.) Leather in Warfare: Attack, Def...

Sean M

The book on the brigandine fragment from Schloss Tirol has an article where a group in South Tirol made a Bashford Dean brigandine. Maybe we need to make all incoming armour books from outside Europe wait on an island until a team of expert armour scholars has determined that they are not bringing a...

Sean M

Also, note 71 of "European Armour from the Imperial Ottoman Arsenal" quotes Dean's inventory of his own collection, which describes a salet which he bought from the arsenal in Istanbul as "discovered in the store-room of the small fortress in the island of Crete." So his own diary of the trip contra...

Sean M

Thank you for quoting that book, Mac! Humh, "the oldest suit" sounds like the steel chimera we all know and hate. So why did he assemble a second? Was he going to place them on opposite sides of the door to his library, like unto the Watchers at Cirith Ungol? And why did they post the vambrace a few...

Sean M

I recall seeing a discussion on here that brought up a good source on the life of Noble clothing, in that they were worn, torn, repaired, worn and, after being inherited and eventually going out of fashion after that, they would be donated to lower standing people? I don't remember any more details...

Sean M

On a side note - the armourer that is making the legs is a graduated designer/artist, but has been making armour for the past 6 years or so. Although he hadn't worked on 15th century stuff specifically before, closed greaves don't differ drastically in the 14th and 15th century. I told him about th...

Sean M

P.S. How can I make the attached pictures appear on the page as pictures and not just links? That is a bit difficult on this forum. The easiest way is to host them on an external site and then use: [url=URL.jpg][img]URL.jpg?w=NUMBER&h=NUMBER[/img][/url] where w and h are within the limits for embed...

Sean M

It could well be that Dave Hewitt told him 'no vambraces or spaulders until you show up for a fitting with the doublet and sleeves of mail.'

Piotr had to pin the sleeves of the blue pourpoint closed on me! I had not finished all of the eyelets.

Sean M

Do I dare to hope that the copper alloy borders are original? I think we have to study each piece individually, using the photos which the Met generously provided. The greave and especially the gauntlets give me a bad feeling but I can't explain why. The cuisse could well date to 1380-1400. That wa...

Sean M

After some further experimentation, I found a way to make self-stuffing cloth buttons with all the raw edges hidden. I will post some photos when I can be bothered, so that I don't forget again. The hardest phase is the final stitches through the bottom of the button to make sure that it stays close...

Sean M

There's also pictures of the infamous corazzina, but i can't be bothered uploading them here. Just follow this link. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/23080 Look again carefully. This is not the infamous corazzina (29.154.3), but it's evil twin (29.150.91). They are fundimantaly the s...

Sean M

Oh. Oh no. This makes me even more sad knowing that... I had no idea until this afternoon that the other red velvet Bashfordism existed. How could there be two?! Was he not satisfied with the first one, and went on to make a MKII? Could Dr. Dean have had that little respect for the old plates?... o...

Sean M

Gustovic, I can only find the vambrace , the incomplete corrazina , and the gauntlet in their catalogue. Where did you find these photos? That there should be two of them is very disturbing..... Mac Mac, there is a list of eight armours assembled by Bashford Dean using various fragments from Chalkis...

Sean M

Another cuisse with a 'chartres bump' over the knee! Greaves w/o a pin or staple to hold the demigreave in place. And another example of the so-called Italian vambrace with an open upper cannon . Why do so many of them survive, when they are so hard to find in art? My guys did not have articulated s...

Sean M

He faces some of the structural problems, and makes some of the same mistakes, which most of us faced when we bought our first armour. Trip for a first fitting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2icy_SfPXkE&index=136&list=PLCA860ECD7F894424 (October 2016) At the armoury for a fitting greaves and breast...

Sean M

Sean, While there are such things my point is the later in the period the more prolific the evidence we have present is relating to this. I have no doubt there are earlier ones only from my experience fewer in number RPM Randall, no doubt. I am excited that you finally have time to publish some of ...

Sean M

but those elbows just do not feel like good design! I used to fight SCA heavy stick with that style of elbow and honestly I can't remember ever getting stung on my inside elbow. Of course the style of combat isn't medieval because the weapons aren't intended to kill and the victory conditions are a...

Sean M

In many ways later evidence is easier to find so that would be an advantage. Look forward to seeing what you come up with. RPM Well, I have detailed descriptions of construction methods by a participant in the Third Crusade (the Itinerarium Peregrinorum ) and from Paris in 1296. So far my earliest ...

Sean M

Thanks for finding it! I don't remember seeing it at the KHM or the HGM but it is supposed to be from one of the collections in Vienna. I also wonder if it might be a cheap or composite armour? The rough-from-the-hammer finish and the way that the tasset lames fit together do not say 'good' to me. M...

Sean M

Thank you Han Piao Ji! There is very little information about ancient Chinese armour in western languages, just the articles by Albert Dien and maybe something in Science and Civilization in China.

Sean M

No, wait... I think I've got something. Do you mean this one? https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-16359.html Mac Hi Mac, that looks like it, and the catalogue numbers match. The old print edition dates it "circa 1570" I think. I could photograph one of my photos of the Karl von...

Sean M

Thanks for finding the photo! I also wonder how a culet like that would interact with a saddle. These are pure cavalry armours, but Samuel Pratt's people may not have known or cared ...

Sean M

Some late 16th century armour with 'bracelet' couters instead of wings has pretty generous bites out of the cannons, and especially the upper cannon. On suits like Royal Armouries II.42/IV.72 (European Armour in the Tower of London LIX) or the 'armour of Karl III von Lothringen' in Blair after p. 14...

Sean M

Interesting! I did not know that one. An article by Hewitt in The Archaeological Journal for 1862 has a few of those very late gauntlets with hide scales, and some other very late patches with steel scales riveted to a canvas backing. Seems crazy, but no crazier than late brigandines I guess? Appare...

Re: What was the timeframe of the short-sleeved Jupon?

Re: Mac's blog

Re: What was the timeframe of the short-sleeved Jupon?

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

Re: Carol van Driel-MurrayArticle on Scabbards from Leiden

Re: Carol van Driel-MurrayArticle on Scabbards from Leiden

Re: Carol van Driel-MurrayArticle on Scabbards from Leiden

Re: Carol van Driel-MurrayArticle on Scabbards from Leiden

Re: Carol van Driel-MurrayArticle on Scabbards from Leiden

Re: Carol van Driel-MurrayArticle on Scabbards from Leiden

Re: Carol van Driel-MurrayArticle on Scabbards from Leiden

Carol van Driel-MurrayArticle on Scabbards from Leiden

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

Re: Source on clothes being donated by Nobles?

Re: St. George from the St. Wolfgang Altarpiece, reconstruct

Re: St. George from the St. Wolfgang Altarpiece, reconstruct

Re: LindyBeige on Commissioning his 15th c German kit

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

Re: A doublet of white linen

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

Re: "New" early XVth century armour from the MET

LindyBeige on Commissioning his 15th c German kit

Re: How might a tunic worn under mail have been constructed?

Re: Wide bites on 16th c inner elbows

Re: How might a tunic worn under mail have been constructed?

Re: Wide bites on 16th c inner elbows

Re: A Few Production Techniques about Chinese Leather Armor

Re: Wide bites on 16th c inner elbows

Re: Medieval Scale Armour

Wide bites on 16th c inner elbows

Re: Medieval Scale Armour