I have recently acquired a pair of gauntlets and gorget for an extraordinarily low price (I won't say, but if you knew I'm sure you would gag). I was frantically excited about these, measuring and assessing them for reproduction in the future. Granted victorian may not be the best example to use as a template, but my current location doesn't have much in the way of museums with armour (none at all). Granted they are quite pretty, and I have enjoyed studying these, but I don't have much attachment to them either. I yearn for a bit more earlier period/function than these.
I've tried selling these on ebay for approximately $800 and I still will relist them, However due to the utter barrage of messages from a few would be buyers (offering 700ish- and I don't understand if they are willing to pay 700, why 800 is such a jump) I'm wondering if I might be gimping myself on the price? Their excitement left me wondering: should I exercise more patience and keep the price? Perhaps even raise it?
Hmmm..... I've been told to follow my instincts when looking at this type of cases. I'm definitely not an expert. The real experts will definitely chime in.
My first impression is that the rivets are extremely regular in shape and size. Your mileage may vary.
Vermillion On the Archive
Christian Von Beckner In the Society
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"Pro Deus et mi Patris"
I'm not sure that I've seen fluted rivets like that in any of my museum catalogs. If I have, it is rare enough that it doesn't register. The butts of the rivets are barely even peened, just enough to keep them from falling out of the holes. They might even be just soldered in place. The rivet opposite the keyhole slot (which does seem to be the right size and shape to match the rivets) does not appear to have ever been attached to a backplate, which tells me that this was never worn as a gorget, and is a display piece only.
Brazing, basically Not Done in period.
The fluting appears to be done with some sort of machine/jenny, rather than by hand. The rolling of the edges is extremely uniform, and while it is a narrow semicircular band on the front, is perfectly flat and even with the body of the sheets on the rear.
The clips on the back of the gorget are for hanging on the wall, and have an identical patina to the rest of the metal, so they were probably put on at the time of construction. The washers for the rivets are round, which indicates that they are almost certainly modern. Those are almost the only rivets that appear to actually be peened.
The etching seems very modern in covering so much of the plates, and seems to have both German and Italian elements in the treatment of the background. I'm specifically talking about how the dots are painted on, while the open areas in some etched helmets is scratched out, while crosshatching is used to give the body of the helmet depth and contour. Other parts of the background have had nothing done, the entire surface has been etched. I'm don't know enough about period etching to say that it was never done like this, but it strikes me as modern (perhaps pressed?).
The rivets on the cuff of the gauntlet sit in circular areas of the etched design make specifically for the rivets, and in general, they didn't care about that sort of thing in period. They'd just slap a rivet in whatever part of the design that was there. The rivet spacing is very uniform, which is another thing that wouldn't concern them much.
I'd call the shape of the gorget more 17thC than 16th, although there were some that were that long in the late 16thC.
That's most of it. When other people like Wade find this, I'm sure they'll have things to add, and correct.
