The Armour Archive

Ernst

..... Ashdown (who, by the way, was not a historian or academic in the field, but an amateur enthusiast, at best who decided to put his opinioni n a book... he had a completely unrelated career as primary and only dabbled in arms and armour history)..... Sounds like Ashdown would be quite at home on...

Ernst

To re-iterate Egfroth's point, a number of depictions of scale armor in Western Europe show scale on top of mail. This would seem to indicate scale armor was an early pre-cursor to the coat of plates, offering some additional semi-rigid protection over the mail. This indicates a wealthier clientele,...

Ernst

Most early 13th century depictions of scale armor in Western Europe show half sleeves, not a vest-type construction--the more Byzantine influence seen, the more likely the sleeves are made to imitate pteruges. Arm holes are usually shown drawn to a point under the arm, rather than having a rounded p...

Ernst

It was not uncommon in England for the Royal Wardrobe to purchase military items in bulk, at least by the reign of Edward II. Some uniformity might result simply by purchasing a bulk quantity from a single supplier. This is why the source of the word becomes an issue. The context of the document fro...

Ernst

I see nothing in the word itself which denotes armor of any kind, gambeson or otherwise. This is a "white coat". If you can provide the documentary evidence which shows it functioned as armor for archers, rather than as a sort of identifying livery, I would be glad to revise my opinion.

Ernst

Richard died in 1199, so depending on the date of the seal, one could argue that this style of helmet was in use by the highest ranks of nobility by perhaps 1190, becoming well known by the time we see multiple illustrations around 1215 or so, and really common by 1240-50.

Ernst

Ernst, Do you have the site for the white leather covers. I've lost my notes on that. Thanks Cet Randall Storey's thesis is still available online: m The specific reference is in Chapter 6, documented in note 71. Especially interesting is the fact this dates from 1324, only two years off from the r...

Ernst

As I have mentioned before, the 1322 regulation given as an appendix in ffoulkes' "The Armourer and His Craft..." is not so explicit in the language to denote that "fabric" was the material used in covering bascinets. It merely notes that covering them is a recent trend which allowed defects in work...

Ernst

There is documentary evidence of bascinets being covered, sometimes with leather, and pictorial evidence of colored bascinets (red springs to mind). Whether the leather was painted, or a colored cloth cover was used, or the bascinet was colored directly is difficult to ascertain. Perhaps a number of...

Ernst

Thomas Powers wrote:Ernst, have you read "Dogs of the Conquest"?

Thomas

No, I haven't. My Soto research started with Ranjel, Biedma, Elvas, and Garcilaso de la Vega, though I also have modern works by Hudson, Brain, Atkinson, etc.

Ernst

Embroider, applique, or paint escutcheons on the surcoat. This is often seen. The Manesse even shows a full achievement of arms on one surcoat IIRC.

Ernst

Although from the wrong country (Spain) and too recent (1537), Hernando de Soto's expedition had both greyhounds and bloodhounds which are named among the expedition.

Ernst

Like old Rock stars, they hid their baldness beneath a hat--(or became monks with tonsures).

Ernst

Were daggers in use among the knightly class in the 12th century?

Ernst

Also for comparison, the Florida Museum of Natural History has an online database for recovered archeological samples. If you search the ceramic category "Majolica" with the ending date range of "1600" you get 93 specimens. m The refurbished house of Diego Colombus (Dominican Republic) also holds a ...

Ernst

http://tierrafinasc.com/

Some really modern stuff, Talavera, etc. The Grenada collection, though not majollica work, seems interesting.

Ernst

The hole pattern in these scales (or lames) is identical to two examples shown in "Armor from the Battle of Wisby", p.279, pl.277, #49, and #51. These are identified as coming from "(49) Crimea" and "(51) 'Seven Brothers', Cuban, Russia" on p. 277. This means they are likely Scythian in origin.

Ernst

As bad as yelling "open fire" to a bunch of archers who have neither firelocks, or pans to open....but no worse than a "live wire" or "live ammo" which can hurt you.

By the way, if zombies are "undead", do they become "un-living" when destroyed?

Ernst

Bodley 264 is actually a collection of Alexander related Romances. While the bulk of the French Alexander (Folios 1-208) was finished and presented in 1344, other portions are later in date. Folios 209-215 or so is an English version dated in the 1340-70 period.Part is dealing with the travels of Ma...

Ernst

Knobbed mace heads.

Ernst

There is an Osprey title, "Flak Jackets", which gives a credible synopsis of Great War armor.

Ernst

There is an illustrated example in the Copenhagen Psalter, Thott 143 2Â°, fo. 15r. This is in the Danish KB, available online, and is considered of English origin 1175-1200. The image is of a sleeping guard at the Seplechure, bottom left figure with the red helmet.

http://www.kb.dk/elib/mss/mdr/fkp/15r.jpg

Ernst

Perhaps the fashion is related to the change from heaumes to bascinets? There is some conjecture that bascinets began their service under the heaume, where decoration would have been superflous. Even the 1322 regulation suggests that bascinets had previously been unadorned. As the bascinet becomes t...

Ernst

Erik, I apologize for the delay in responding. I'm working from the photo in Neubecker's book cited in the table discussion, "Heraldry--Sources, Symbols, and Meanings. Neubecker includes a number of line drawings of these helmets along with photos of the table. Several examples have a rectangular pa...

Ernst

The Poles used to paint their horses red and white. I suspect a number of techniques were used to decorate heaumes (pot helms, barrel helms, what have you). Ee.3.69 (helm with the peacock-feather-eyes) and the Mathhew Paris' Westminster Psalter knight (the one with crosses rising over his shoulder) ...

Ernst

Erik,

Sorry, I forgot to respond about the table, but it was previously discussed with ample links on AA earlier in 2005.

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=43686

Ernst

The Roe leather cite (cuir de Roo--How's that Erik, Roo-skin) is Roll A 1b: (ii) Nov. 1327 - Jul. 1328. A complaint filed at the Court of Edward III on 17 March 1327. The petititon alleges "foreigners" (those from outside London and its Guild regulations) were selling within the city sheep leather w...

Ernst

The one thing that seems to have been missed here is that an original document from the 14th century refers specifically to the covering of helmets with fabric by London armourers. (see: The Armourer & His Craft by Charles Ffolkes) This could easily account for the different colours. The use of pai...

Ernst

Also, there exists at least one example of a 13th(?) century scale armour from Moorish Spain in a museum in either Alava or Vitoria. This armor is reportedly at the Museo de Arqueologia. Vitoria-Gatiez is the capital of the Basque province of Alava. I doubt any Moorish influence on its construction...

Ernst

No pattern, but to reiterate a point.... These masked early heaumes don't seem to show up until the first decade of the 13th c. with some depictions lasting until about 1250. This is 4th Crusade equipment at the earliest, and more likely 5th or later Crusades.

Ernst

For anyone who may have a copy of Milia Davenport's "The Book of Costume", please view the "Morion" thread. I realize that many "clothing type" people might have this text (if you have the original two-volume, the photographs will hopefully be clearer than in my single-volume re-print). Since you ma...

Ernst

Villerica, I had seen your original posting concerning that morion, but had restrained myself from posting, in hopes that someone more knowledgable of the armor of the period (Yes Jason, I had you in mind) would respond. I once had to inform a museum which had purchased a morion that although it was...

Ernst

The earliest pictoral evidence I have found of a comb morion is the 1540 portrait of Thomas Wyndham attributed to Hans Eworth. The date of the portrait is on the harquebus muzzle. Wyndham was an English navigator who explored the West Coast of Africa, and died on his otherwise-successful final voyag...

Ernst

There are some likely examples in the c.1443-6 Diebold Lauber copy of Wolfram's Parzival, cpg.339.

http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cpg339I/0239

http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cpg339I/0327

http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cpg339I/0450

This is apparently designed to be worn beneath plate.

http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cpg339II/0018

http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cpg339II/0486

Ernst

To bump this after the weekend, there is also this image of Edmund Crouchback and St. George from the Bodleian Ms. Douce 231 fo.1r. The only dating I have seen says "14th century", but the ailettes point to a date close to the 1340s at the latest.

http://www.answers.com/topic/edmund-cro ... -lancaster

Millia Davenport scan needed