The Armour Archive

In my line of work you are never surprised at what comes up on any given day. But today I was a bit surprised.
Debbie Reynolds called me. Seems she has a suit of armour in need of repair. It is the suit worn by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of arc (1948) I post it here because it is one of the few well made movie armours I have seen. I believe it was made at the Metropolitan museum of art’s armoury. (Paging James Gillespie)
It has a nice form and the person (or persons) who made it had obviously studied real armour. I would not call it the best replica armour, but it is pretty nice for movie armour. I will try to restore it to its original mechanical condition, but leave the patina and original leather were possible.

Anyway, here are some photos of a bit of movie history:
In the day:


Today:







If anyone has any history on this suit I would love to hear about it.

Dude, that is awesome.

Aluminum? How is that visor constructed? It looks welded/soldered.

Some behind-the-scenes photos.

An excerpt from the movie, with Bergman in the armor.

It looks like the costume designer was Dorothy Jeakins. LACMA has some costume sketches and UCLA has her costume sketch archive, including some from Joan of Arc, but I haven't found a sketch for the armor online. TCM say she was "hired as a sketch artist for "Joan of Arc" (1948), Jeakins soon replaced costume designer Karinska and won an Oscar--the first awarded to a costume designer--for her medieval designs."

Debbie Reynolds has owned the armor for 35+ years- is she planning on selling it in the big auction of part of her collection in June?

Tracy

That's fantastic film history.

It was the coolest part of that movie. Have fun.

I caught that movie on TV a couple weeks ago and was amazed by the quality (for a movie) of the armour. Dozens and dozens of people all in good looking armour, all styled after real armours of the time.

I like this thread.

You get to hold Ingrid Bergman’s legs. Hubba hubba!

What a fun job.

You, sir, have a very cool job. One which, I hope, allows you to take pictures during the progress and post them for us.

Very cool. Tell Debbie Reynolds that I'm in love with her daughter and have been since I was about 7

Chris, how the hell do I become someone as cool as you? How the hell do I become a person who gets to see all the awesome things you see?





I believe I can sum this up in one word of L33T.



3P!C!!!!!!

wow sweet. i just watched that movie again not too long ago on tv

Benedek wrote:Chris, how the hell do I become someone as cool as you? How the hell do I become a person who gets to see all the awesome things you see?





I believe I can sum this up in one word of L33T.



3P!C!!!!!!

It's not about being cool; I just chose a career that involves popular, cool things.
Come out to CA and I'll sell you the whole place.

Chris Gilman wrote:

Benedek wrote:Chris, how the hell do I become someone as cool as you? How the hell do I become a person who gets to see all the awesome things you see?





I believe I can sum this up in one word of L33T.



3P!C!!!!!!

It's not about being cool; I just chose a career that involves popular, cool things.
Come out to CA and I'll sell you the whole place.

You speak as if this podunk Redneck can afford it.

That's amazing, Chris. Color me jealous.

(Flash of flame and smoke) Having been invoked, I suppose I must appear... Heinrich was a successor to Daniel Tachaux, the Met's restorer back when they actually did that sort of thing. The most popular of his works was the mounted horn crested 'frogmouth' helmed 'gothic' tournament harness that used to be on display. It had many genuine elements, many of which are still on display. Heinrich's work on the 'Joan' armour shows that it was done by someone with intimate and long acquaintance with real armour, and who had it to hand when he needed answers to technical problems. It has a few peculiarities, though, and I will never understand those pointed -cuff gauntlets! For more on Daniel Tachaux;

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 5B838DF1D3

The original Bergman film was much longer than the present version, and had at least two more major battle scenes. They were apparently cut because the studio heads felt the film was dragging. I once had a wanna-be client, an elderly gentleman who had, in his youth, played one of Jeanne's pages, and who had set up a Jeanne d'Arc museum in Mexico, of all places, where he had retired. He treasured the memory of their friendship, and the museum probably had as much to do about her and the film as it had to do with Jeanne d'Arc. He had what was one of only three remaining copies of the full length film, till it was lost in a fire.

Wait a minute ....

(squinty eyes)

That picture of the arm harness. The top assembly. I see 3 lames from the shoulder, and what I thought was a tiny or cut lame above the rerebrace. Now that I look closer, it looks to be a fairly spiff setup for a sliding rivit turner! Is that what it is??

Yes, that is what it is. The one arm has come apart; the other is as it should be. Like James Gillaspie and I have said, the person who made this was very familiar with real armour.

James Gillaspie,
Thank you for the information.

You're welcome, Chris! It is interesting that such a sliding rivet system exists on at least one real harness, if dating from about 1520, namely the foot combat harness of Henry VIII.

what an interesting piece of movie history to work with!

I've had this ad on the wall next to my desk for years-



I bought it because the armour was so good for a costume, it really looked like armour. It's very cool to see the real thing.

Gwen

James Arlen Gillaspie wrote:You're welcome, Chris! It is interesting that such a sliding rivet system exists on at least one real harness, if dating from about 1520, namely the foot combat harness of Henry VIII.

Very interesting; I've seen a picture of that armor before and never noticed it as a slider. I've always seem them as a two-piece rerebrace with the top piece with the "roll" and the bottom piece flared so that it fits into the "roll" above.

I would have never guessed the turner made with the really long slotted rivits style is period. Thanks for sharing that picture.

Since we got de-railed onto slotted rotators on the upper arm...

They aren't all that uncommon right at the begining of the 16th c. At least 2 of Henry VIII's armours have them. They also continue later, but more rarely. I was lucky enough to get one (not a pair, one) recently in a later 16th c. arm:

You can see it on the images here:

http://www.allenantiques.com/A-171.html

Now, back to the cool armour.

If you can, show more pics as you put it back together.

Wade

That is just too cool. It looks like it's had a hard life since 1948, are you going to fix any of the dents (If it's even possible I guess)?

I just got the "go ahead" from Ms. Reynolds.
The plan is to repair any damage that seems to have resulted from mishandling or storage.
Also repair rotted straps that hold plates together and replace missing rivets or modern "speed" rivets.
Make new tasset plates and sabatons to replace the missing ones.
Then properly display it on the armour form that was with it, although the stand looks to be of much newer construction. (Drywall screws and galvanized t straps)
The mail was pinned together by someone who didn’t realize what the mail was for and the greaves were taped to the inside of the demigreaves.
I will likely start on it this week.

It seems, James, that all is not lost. A mint condition full length uncut film, with the soundtrack intact, was found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Ar ... 48_film%29

145 minute version:
http://www.amazon.com/Joan-Arc-Ingrid-B ... 662&sr=1-7

Dave

Hallelujah! Miracles still happen!

Pictures of the restoration as it happens??

M

I started the repair. It isn't really a restoration, as Ms. Reynolds wants to leave the patina and minor damage on the suit. I would like to restore it completely, but perhaps the new owner will want that.
Restoration is a tricky thing when it comes to value of a piece. In the gun and furniture market, original finish is very important. Restoring a piece can ruin its value, even if the original finish is in poor shape. On the other hand, in the car world, a completely restored car is ok and in most cases, it improves the cars value quite a bit. I talked with a few collectors of movie memorabilia and some seem to think restoration is ok, other want the piece “as found”.

So with the armour I’m repairing bastardized repairs or modifications and straightening the badly bent parts.
The arms seem to be the worse off. It looks as though the armour was used after its original film use. There are speed rivets, elastic, and webbing, some in new holes drilled next to old ones. This is likely from a strap braking on set and it being easier and quicker to drill a new hole and throw in a speed rivet then grind out the solid rivet in the original hole. The shoulder caps at one time got switched and the leathers on the center and front have been mostly lost to filling holes with rivets. To repair this mess, I disassembled both arms (one at a time) and using a soft mallet straightened out bent plates. The aluminum is very soft, and can be formed by hand.

I was lucky to pick up a huge box of surplus “NASA” rivets from an auction many years ago, so I have a ample supply of 1950’s & 60’s aluminum rivets. I filled holes in the plates that did not belong with counter sunk rivets, and then carefully flushed them off. The damage rotator was disassembled, and trued up and again, new truss head rivets installed for the rotation joint. With the addition of new leathers and locking pins in the vambraces, the arms are complete and working after who knows how many years.
In all it took about 6 hours to complete these repairs. Once all the pieces are repaired, I'll add new straps.

Here is a shot of the inside of the arm before I started:


Here are both arms once repaired (Note: I still have to use some solvent to remove tape residue):



Today, I hope to get the legs fixed and the replacement sabatons made.

Wow, the articulation on those is better than you see on much SCA armour!

Nice job reshaping them. Neat piece of history.

In case anyone wants to be the proud owner of this after Chris finishes up....

http://www.profilesinhistory.com/hollyw ... og/oummary

Page 104, lot 198 in the PDF catalogue. There is a lot of other really cool movie stuff in the sale too.

Estimate - $20,000-30,000.


Wade

Nice job Chris! It looks great. I am impressed by some of the detail the original maker put into the armour in its design and shape.

RPM

We I’m finished with the repairs.
Now that it’s assembled, it doesn’t look like I did that much. Basically here is what I did.
Fixed rotator on left arm.
Replaced leathers on inside of arms and breastplate fauld.
Made new locking pin for right side of backplate.
Plugged extra holes in various pieces - most seem to have been drilled to add straps next to broken ones.
Replaced “speed” or “slam” rivets with proper domed aluminum ones to match originals.
2 new tassets- originals were missing
New straps and buckles- most were missing and those that where there were not original.
Did not replace greave straps – remnant straps seem to be original
Straightened most pieces, but did not refinish or remove small dents or scratches.
Padded out stand and put mail in proper place.
Here are a few images of the finished piece.





Fun project, it will be interesting to see what it sells for.
If any of you guys buy it let me know.

You did a good job on the tassets matching the patina of the harness. Did you put a maker's mark on them? That's a discussion I've had with a number of folks who do restorations: how do you mark what is replacement work?

Also, purely for the gossip value: what is the waist measurment?

Thanks for sharing your pictures.


Tracy