The Armour Archive

Ernst

Also remember that not all polearm hafts are round in section. Sometimes an irregular octagon was used. This actually means less work when starting with square stock.

Ernst

Randall Storey's thesis also contains a reference to 14th century aketons of horn, but again, no specific construction is given.

Ernst

There are two examples in Bodley 264. While most people are familiar with this codex as the 1344 Alexander Romance, the scale helmets appear in the added Marco Polo of c. 1400. The first fello armed with a scimitar is being slain by a soldier in an Eastern European "Phrygian" bascinet. m The second ...

Ernst

Provenance and context are everything, or as the Realtors say, "Location, location, location." If Mssr. Buttin bought the item in an antique shop, it might have come from America, but if it were found in a Burgundian field? The two piece construction looks 18th century, but the French "halberds" of ...

Ernst

I've seen "chicken plate" for chopper pilots before, but never a set from the 16th century. This would be interestiing to see.

Ernst

Most of your period sources will be c.1210-1240. I believe I have seen a French stained glass example dated as late as c.1250. Veldecke's Eneit-- m Villard de Honnecourt's Album-- m m Silver Reliquary of Charlemagne-- m Of course you can find further examples with a search on this site for "salt sha...

Ernst

Leaving aside the very real possibility that the item is something other than armour, why must the plates be on the outside? Why can't it be an early coat of plates or brigandine like garment with the plates on the inside? If the garment was lined with leather then those massive split rivet prongs ...

Ernst

Simple brass aglets...

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/10/0 ... s_his.html

Ernst

Maxim machineguns were mowing down Islamic extremists clad in mail at Omduran in 1898.

Ernst

Trevor wrote:Arrgh. Firestryker is still down.

any other sources out there?

Nah, back up again.

http://image.ox.ac.uk/images/bodleian/m ... 4/108v.jpg

http://gallica.bnf.fr/image?L=08100220&I=90

http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/ob ... z3365.html

Ernst

How about The Golden Cup. That makes sense and there are banners with golden cups all over the place. Lorelei made a banner with a golden cup just last week. John Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus www.mron.org Proprietor, The Compagniye Store (buy a 14th Century Mafia Shirt) Then pe...

Ernst

I have read several sources which stated that the ale-wife would hang her ale broom out for the public to know when fresh ale was available. Kind of a medieval "Hot Donuts Now" sign, if you get the drift. The ale-broom looks like a regular old round pole broom, and was used to help transfer the cult...

Ernst

Unfortnately the Fyrestriker boards are temporarily down. We had a thread going on about this topic a year or more past, with several links to manuscript examples from the late 13th and 14th centuries. Most of the heaters appear to be small, basically a three cornered buckler size.

Ernst

For what it's worth, I found the Sayers translation, added in parenthises. L. LXXIX (ll.994-999) Paien s'adubent osbercs sarazineis, (Now are the Paynims in Sarsen hauberks dight) N.B. Great, now we have to translate "dight". Tuit li plusur en sunt (saraguzeis) dublez en treis, (Wherof the most with...

Ernst

Gawd my OF is rusty... wasn't THAT good to start with. Yeah, doubled in three is how I'd read it, too. Don't get where "thoroughly" comes from in line three, though. Nor do I. It was late, and I was trying to think of some wording stronger than "tied", since "laced" no longer seems to carry the fee...

Ernst

I have no idea what language these texts were written in (I would presume Latin), are we not in serious danger relying on a tertiary translation in this case? Does anyone have access to the original untranslated text? N. Nathan, You asked a good critical question, which is the kind of thing which k...

Ernst

p. 248 Note 9 " The song of Roland tr. D.L. Sayers (London: Penguin, 1957), p. 90, v. 79, v. 99, p.101; Guillaume le Breton, Phillippidos , vol. iii, pp. 83-85, ll. 485-534; ...... The point about the "thrice-woven mail" in Guillaume le Breton has been missed because of the odd Latin, thoraca trili...

Ernst

I have to say, though, the latest representations I know of showing hauberks with other than full-length sleeves are 1195-1200 - though one of those is of common soldiers (it's the Massacre of the Innocents) - see below. However, the other shows King Stephen of England, and he has wide sleeves that...

Ernst

Looking at the pic now... and do not see a fluted bascinet. Which figure is wearing a fluted bascinet? m[/quote] Sorry for the confusion. The fluted bascinet is in Bodley 264 "Alexander" fo.66v, not in the Hurlbat "Jugement". While both show side pivots, the Jugement shows more of a globose style. ...

Ernst

"Don't call me 'Sir'. I work for a living."?

Ernst

Although the site merely lists the "Mystere dou jour dou jugement" as 14th century, the use of ailettes by this bascinet wearing figure could not be later than 1350. m Here we likely have a 1340s (contemporary to the Romance of Alexander) side-pivot, globose visor. I don't doubt there are more examp...

Ernst

I have found continual illustrations for every decade of the 14th of side mounted visors. I don't think they ever died out. Perhaps became less popular but I don't think died out ever completely. Klappvisor is not something I have found many of though. RPM Do you know of references from 1340-70ish?...

Ernst

If you consider the earliest round top bascinets into the mix, side pivoting visors (but not hounds-mask) appear as early as c. 1315.

Ernst

I have provided this citation before, and much worthwhile discussion concerning the original language ensued. Unfortunately these posts were lost at Arador, and a search here provided only a passing reference on the subject. John France, "Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300", Cornel...

Ernst

The one fashion change common to the 12th century, and contradicting the idea that this is a heraldic surcoat, is the use of long gowns beneath the mail. The skirts on this seal seem to be from such a gown.

Ernst

Another possibility is that he relied upon another source's description, or a previous century's engraving showing such details. Sometimes those earlier engravings can't be verified due to the loss, damage, or destruction of the original artifact. Details are most usually lost on exposed statuary th...

Ernst

Many of the photos are appalling - I was using a handheld camera, without flash, in very dark rooms, through glass, with an angry duck in my trousers*. * part of this is untrue I'm glad to read that the museum was, in fact, well lit. Scale aventails are not that unusual a feature for the given time...

Ernst

The oft-derided, "only example of a klapvisor bar-grill" painting is the "Resurrection" by the 'Master of Trebon' (Bohemian/Czech). The painting is not detailed enough to show the visor pivot like this one. Great find! Do you have any more details of this "Angst Altar"? A quick search yielded thousa...

Ernst

FWIW this late in the discussion, the sculptures in question are from Wells Cathedral, and are generally given a date of c. 1240-50. There are surviving 13th century garments where one piece of fabric is used for front and back, with no shoulder seam at all. There is literary documentation mentionin...

Ernst

I still wonder how far off the mark Byzantine scale is for the West. There seems to be an increase in images of scale in the early 1200s. Is this a result of captured equipment from the 4th Crusade, imported gear from Latin Greece, or a copying of Byzantine art? How long did Roman construction metho...

Ernst

A Note on Thickness: It is frequently asked, "How thick were their helmets, 16 gauge, 14 gauge, etc." The informed answer is that historical helmets use differing thicknesses in differing places to provide more protection in critical areas. The same is ikely true of shields. I have seen measurements...

Ernst

I have seen some rare depictions of scale armor from English sources in the 1220-1340 time frame. Like similar contemporary depictions in other areas of western Europe these are uncommon, and frequently appear on figures of saracens or angels. I'll leave it to others to argue the validity of such de...

Ernst

You could always try the Cottonlandia Museum in Greenwood, Mississippi. m Their gift shop carries a number of sizes of "mini-bales" (5#, 25#, etc.) of raw, ginned cotton. The 1322 regulations of the Armourers of London, cited by ffoulkes, calls for gambesons covered in silk to be stuffed with "new c...

Ernst

Pass Go. Collect $200.

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread ... adid=70438

Ernst

The word is quite contemporary with the helmet, at least appearing with somewhat varied spelling in the c. 1330 'Modus armandi..' text. The pronunciation of Old French is quite disputed as all the people who spoke it are dead. The way an Englishman would have said Old French would have varied signif...

Aglets

Re: Images: German National Museum's new "Mittelalter&q