Long Spaulders and Anime Armour

[Sean M]

In Schloss Tratzberg they have an anime armour (aka. anima, aka. articulated cuirass) with rerebraces built anime-style paired with long gauntlets. The rerebraces are “spaulders” of lames rather than “pauldrons” with extensions to cover the front and back of the armpit. Is that a common combination? I thought that long spaulders + elbow gauntlet was something of a low-budget feature in 16th century armour, whereas anime cuirasses tend to be high-budget.

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I liked it because they toothed the edges of all the lames with a scale motif.

What are some good resources on anime armours? I know that Filippo Negroli and his Contemporaries by the Met has some 'fine art' quality armour. There is a line drawing of the inside of one floating around on MyArmoury, no source given. There is a photo of it in Carlo's book (= Royal Armoures II.178, said to have been made for Edward VI; line drawing in Blair).

[wcallen]

European Armour in the Tower of London (Dufty) has a picture of the breast and back of the 3/4 armour from the inside. That helps clear things up a lot. Plate XXXVII.

Sasuke built one.

Tracy was trying to get me to make one for the kid one year, but I wimped out.

I have a spaulder much like what I think the one on that teeny armour picture looks like:
http://www.allenantiques.com/A-117.html

John started to make some copies. I made a pair for one of my kid's armours too. Kind of fun to do, the geometry is a little weird. I expect it was easier for us since we could pull patterns from the piece. I had to shrink it down a lot.

Wade

[Gerhard von Liebau]

http://myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php ... ight=anime

We had that discussion a few years ago. Since then I seem to recall the general consensus that eastern European versions of the anime cuirass (such as those used by Polish hussars) were far more likely to be articulated. The use of other components with a matching "anime" lame pattern or articulation method, such as pauldrons or cuisses, is notable on some of the examples in that thread.

Alas, my old Flickr account has been revamped. Perhaps I can figure out which photos I shared from my visit to the Kunsthistoriches and re-post good links in the thread. Cheers!

-Gerhard

[Sean M]

That was a good MyArmoury thread.

European Armour in the Tower of London (Dufty) has a picture of the breast and back of the 3/4 armour from the inside. That helps clear things up a lot. Plate XXXVII.

Sasuke built one.

Tracy was trying to get me to make one for the kid one year, but I wimped out.

I have a spaulder much like what I think the one on that teeny armour picture looks like:
http://www.allenantiques.com/A-117.html

John started to make some copies. I made a pair for one of my kid's armours too. Kind of fun to do, the geometry is a little weird. I expect it was easier for us since we could pull patterns from the piece. I had to shrink it down a lot.

Wade

Your A-117 looks roughly like what I remember (again, only saw it once, not an armourer, not an expert on 16th century armour). The light cavalry armour of Archduke Maximillian III in Schloss Ambras and their armour for an infantryman in the first armoury have roughly similar armharness, only without the scale motif.

I can see why this stuff is not popular to reproduce ... but sometimes it 'works.'

Who are John and Sasuke?

[Galileo]

Sasuke is the handle of an Archiver here. Haven't seen him post in a while. Looks like his last time here was over a year ago.

[Johann ColdIron]

Your A-117 looks roughly like what I remember (again, only saw it once, not an armourer, not an expert on 16th century armour). The light cavalry armour of Archduke Maximillian III in Schloss Ambras and their armour for an infantryman in the first armoury have roughly similar armharness, only without the scale motif.

I can see why this stuff is not popular to reproduce ... but sometimes it 'works.'

Who are John and Sasuke?

John is me.

I've still got them. That part of the project is on hold until I finish my Cuirass. From the test fit they will need significant widening/opening to get the top lames to function correctly over the back and breast. Given the width of the ones in Wades collection I would assume they were someone fairly small if they went with a cuirass. They might fit better on a coat of plates or padded jack.

Here is one set next to Wades A-117. I have been very fortunate that Wade is willing to let me handle them and pull patterns from them! The top lames were a little funky to shape. Went through two patterns till it worked.

[James Arlen Gillaspie]

This Italian anime backplate is pretty much what you would expect.

[Sean M]

There is one of these in Graz published in the exhibition catalogue Imperial Austria. They think that they were worn with elbow gauntlets and mail sleeves, and the staff at the Johanneum know their stuff. That catalogue is not expensive and has pretty good photos.



James, your photo reminds me of a photo of the back of the "Ferdinand of of Aragon" armour in Wien. I think it may be in Goll's thesis, and that backplate only has five or so pieces. Edit: Its Goll's ref_arm_3928_001