The Armour Archive

Tasha Kelly tells us that the yellow pourpont of Charles VI is part of a travelling exhibit: in Prague/Praha until 25 September, then in Nuremberg/Nürnberg from October 2016 to March 2017. The future of its home museum in Lyon in France is very much in doubt, so if you are interested in 14th century clothing, now is the time to see it!

I sure wish I could. What a shame.

RPM

The museum in Nürnberg is a 20min subway ride away from me.
So if someone wants photos of that garment, I might be able to help.

If we are lucky, we might get a German or English catalogue with a list of the academic publications with details that the medieval sewing people would be interested in. There have to be a few things in French out there which we don't know about ...

Well, to Nürnberg I have to ride a few hours, but less than to Lyon. Maybe I should think about it And if I am there all ready, I could go into the Rüstkammer and stare at some real armour....

They also have the Resurrection painting with the "herringbone" visor, a glove said to have been donated to a town by Kaiser Karl IV. in 1354, a Mary Rose bow and arrow, and the late 15th century Flemish Froissart with all the the colourful armour in the BNF (Français 2643) ... just saying!

I went yesterday (sunday for those who live in another time zone) and it was interesting - but unfortunately there were no photos allowed (just in this exhibition, all other exhibits can be photographed without flash).
But I won't give up! The exhibit is here until march and I'll try to get a permisson to take some pictures - but given that I'm just a lowly gunsmith and no philosopher king that may be hard... anyway, anyone got some pointers that might help?

It was interesting. They have the pourpoint on display behind glass, nearly viewable from 360°, but on the first glance I didn't see anything I haven't already seen on existing photographs. But I didn't look to hard as my main goal was to take pictures.

The Mary Rose bow was right next to it - it's huge, easily as tall as me (180cm or around 70") and there also was a arrow with clear traces of a spiral binding for the fletching - but it was rather short.

There's also an awesome wooden St. Georg sculptur, ca. 120cm high, from the late 14th century with interesting armour details.

And a relief caught my eye, it was from the middle of the 14th century and showed two soldiers with peculiar armored gloves - fingers with small scales as per norm but the metacarpal plate and the cuff had no distinction but the cuff clearly was made from supple leather, there were wrinkles, while the metacarpal "plate" was smooth showing the silhouette of the knuckles. One of them had what might be wraparound leather greaves - you could see them from behind with the closure over a small slit. The same soldier also wore a bascinet but rested on a great helm with moveable visor. You would not believe how much I cursed the "no photographs"-policy -.-

Anyway. I plan to go there again sometime - as I said it's just 20min with the subway - and if all else fails I'll make some sketches of the details.

Took nearly 400 pictures of most medival things. Will upload them as soon as I find a suitable hoster.

tiredWeasel wrote:And a relief caught my eye, it was from the middle of the 14th century and showed two soldiers with peculiar armored gloves - fingers with small scales as per norm but the metacarpal plate and the cuff had no distinction but the cuff clearly was made from supple leather, there were wrinkles, while the metacarpal "plate" was smooth showing the silhouette of the knuckles. One of them had what might be wraparound leather greaves - you could see them from behind with the closure over a small slit. The same soldier also wore a bascinet but rested on a great helm with moveable visor. You would not believe how much I cursed the "no photographs"-policy -.-

Thanks for the report, I hope that other archivers have been able to visit.

I think that the relief of the sleeping guards from Strassbourg is printed in David Niccole's "Medieval Warfare Sourcebook" or in Edge and Paddock.



Lots of interesting details including this.



Note that the long parts of the lace are pulled across the face of the vambrace rather than hanging downwards. What is is tied to and why? Has a slot for them really been cut into the splints?

Yes, it's this relief from Strassbourg. Found it by chance a few weeks back while browsing on pinterest ^^
I went again last week. But it was more crowded than last time so again no pictures.

The slot looks like it was carved for convenience of working the stone. My first thought as to their direction was to show movement but that's not right as the rest of his clothes would be moving too. Maybe there's a keeper to keep them tidy and slick looking?