British Museum Archer's Bracer

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

I hae been working on a reconstruction of this bracer, and have a question in to the museum regarding what other colours may have been used on the deoration, but I haven't heard anything back as of yet.....Does anyone have any knowledge of this? I am ready to start the painting process.....

[Maelgwyn]

Is that a base coat of bole? I've read of this process but not actually seen it. Great! I've used egg-based paints with mineral pigments to good effect over gesso on leather, so they should also work well over bole.

Is it hard to get an even coat of bole without filling in the detail of the leather tooling? How do you manage this?

I have not seen any analysis of this piece that mentioned colors of paint, so you may be on your own. I would use similar and contemporary works of illumination to guide my color choices, since surviving painted leather is somewhere between rare and non-existant.

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

I only used the "bole" on the recessed areas, the colour of the leather, after baking, was really close to the colour of the bole. It did fill in the design a little, but not so much that it took anything away from the look. There really is no design in the recessed areas, just a jumble of tiny circles that "mash" it down.

[Uadahlrich]

Ooooohhhh shiney!!!

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

OKay, I still haven't heard anything from the British Museum, so I decided to get creative.....this is in process....

[Gerhard von Liebau]

Please enter this in Cat's Historic Leatherwork Contest! You'll win! I'm sure of it. Mwahaha. Such a sick reproduction you've got going! I'm entering, but oh, well... The more the merrier!

-Gregory

[Dansknecht]

A beautiful and excellent reproduction.

How is it fastened? Given the status of the archers aboard the Mary Rose, would a gold coat as you've done be plausible?

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

The original bracer, whose origin is somewhat in dispute, shows evidence of gilding in the recessed areas. Once it is finished, I will be adding Y shaped buckle and tongue straps that will be riveted in place. This type of a fastening is common amongst the finds from the Mary Rose, and is supposed to have been the original fastening utilized on the extant bracer. This Bracer is referenced as coming from Boulton Hall, Yorkshire, where it has been left by n eof Henry the VI's followers, when retreating from the battle at Hexham. However, this account of the bracer's origin is in dispute.

[Dansknecht]

Very cool! I've only ever seen line drawings and black and white images of the bracer(s).

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

This was the first photo, of this particular bracer, that I found where you can really see the gilding.

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

Got the paint finished, and the buckle strap attached....

[Dansknecht]

Beautiful work!

[Konstantin the Red]

Lochbuie, CO... way it's laid out it looks more a suburb than a BFE... though net sources seem to point to two locations, one an outlier from the Denver area and the other up at the Wyoming border, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense with the highway numbers. So your nearest barony is Caerthe, Outlands?

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

lol, that is somewhat of an inside joke.....I had some friends, who lived in Denver, who had never heard of Lochbuie, and the seriously thought I was using that name as a euphamism for BFE.... we are about 30 mile NE of Denver, and we are dead between Caerthe and Unser Hafen.

[Kilkenny]

You've done a beautiful job on this piece Jentien.

Looking at the pictures has raised a question though - what is on the other side ? All the images I've ever seen (including that nice pic showing the hints of the gilding) all show the same perspective on the piece. This leads me to assume (always dangerous) that the portions out of sight are plain and undecorated.... but is that true ?

Again, really nice work.

[James B.]

Dude you so have to add that to this thread: http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... p?t=113386

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

I just received this missive from the British Museum:

You are right, this archer’s bracer 1922,0110. 1 is a fascinating object and is obviously of high quality as well as being a rare survival of a courtly archer’s accessory from Tudor England. It is designed for use with a longbow. The form of the inscription and design of the Tudor badge suggest a very early 16th C dating, probably from the end of Henry VII’s reign. The front of the bracer has the raised cuir boulli design seen clearly in the image; the back is left plain and pierced with holes of leather thongs to hold it in place on the wrist. There are traces of gilding and perhaps even of red pigment on the lettering. I hope this gives you the information you need, though you do not give information on the nature of your interest in the object.



I have edited the record for the object which you can see on Collections online on the BM website (changes take about a week to go onto the website) and have put in a bibliographical reference which you might wish to consult, which includes a detailed drawing of the design and decoration of the object. The book can be consulted in our study Room by appointment if you are in London, or you could get it through inter-library loan elsewhere in the UK. You do not say if you have seen the object on display in our Gallery 46.



We occasionally take the object off display for study but would only do this for exceptional reasons given its fragility.



Yours sincerely



Dr Dora Thornton

Curator of Renaissance Europe

Prehistory and Europe

The British Museum

[Gerhard von Liebau]

E-mail her back the image of your reproduction. 50/50 they'll ask you to make them one to display side-by-side with the piece. It turned out gorgeous. And, what are you going to do about the straps? She said it was laced... Hmmm.

[Micke D]

I have read that too, but I don't think it was laced originally.
I think it was used with two Y-straps as Jantien has made his.

[Tom B.]

And, what are you going to do about the straps? She said it was laced... Hmmm.

The Y strap is probably the correct original fastening.

Read Clive Bartlett's write up on this bracer on page 17 of Dragon No. 8. This is the full article he wanted published in his Osprey English Longbowman book.

Tom

[Micke D]

It may very well have been Bartletts article I read it in.

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

About the straps.....there is some conjecture about the extra holes in the bracer, and when they were created, as they seem to have been added at a later date.....some of the design was obliterated by these holes. I did notice that there were two holes that seem strategically placed...one hole each, inside the loop that goes from the acorn to the oak leaf, and they seemed perfectly aligned to have once been the attachment point for the "Y" shaped straps, which are common on similar bracers found on the Mary Rose. The placement of those holes seemed deliberate to me, and did not mar any of the design. The other holes seemed haphazard to me, and have been speculated to have been added at a later date, perhaps after the original strap had come off.

[Cat]

Excellent reproduction! Please DO enter it into the contest! It's only a small prize, but I'm hoping the entries encourage people to try making more authentic tooled pieces.

Got a question for you - how does the bracer fit? I messed around with this style of bracer a while back, and I was not able to make one that was shaped like this one, but still have it fit properly on the arm. To make mine fit in a way that seemed proper, I had to make the wrist end narrower than the forearm end, since that is the way the arm is shaped. It ended up looking like an elongated trapezoid, rather than a rectangle (which this one seems to be).

Again, GREAT job!
Cat

[Micke D]

At least one of the bracers from Mary Rose is like the one you describe Cat, with the wrist end narrower than the elbow end.

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

I must admit to being a tad dissapointed.....I entered this in our Kingdom A&S event, I only had two judges,(my other entry had three) and I didn't get the feeback I was hoping for......./cry. When I decided to enter it as , I was a little stumped as to where to classify it....Decorative Leatherwork, or Funtional Art/Armor. I opted for the latter, and perhaps that was my error. I really don't enter A&S competitions to win, I want feedback, input, data, opinions...etc..... what makes that much more dissapointing is that I don't get the comment forms back from Kingdom A&S.

[Kilkenny]

Jantien, I have a question regarding the description of the bracer as couer boulle.

What - if you know - is the basis for the identification of this piece as 'boiled leather' ?

It strikes me as a curious item to have been treated in that manner, as I don't think of an archer's bracer as an item that needs hardening....

As for the A&S situation... yeah... I generally don't put my things into anything that is being "judged". Too often the judges know less about the subject than the artisans and really don't have anything to offer. And that includes me when I've been roped into judging

[earnest carruthers]

"I really don't enter A&S competitions to win, I want feedback, input, data, opinions...etc..... what makes that much more dissapointing is that I don't get the comment forms back from Kingdom A&S."


Maybe it is difficult to be judged by people who know less than you do.

Talk to leather workers and other craftspeople, talk to the ones that do as you do and strive for the same things.

Easy to be a critic or a judge

[white mountain armoury]

excellent work !

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

Excellent reproduction! Please DO enter it into the contest! It's only a small prize, but I'm hoping the entries encourage people to try making more authentic tooled pieces.

Got a question for you - how does the bracer fit? I messed around with this style of bracer a while back, and I was not able to make one that was shaped like this one, but still have it fit properly on the arm. To make mine fit in a way that seemed proper, I had to make the wrist end narrower than the forearm end, since that is the way the arm is shaped. It ended up looking like an elongated trapezoid, rather than a rectangle (which this one seems to be).

Again, GREAT job!
Cat

I have had it on my arm, but have not shot with it on, as of yet. it rests differently than other bracers I've worn. If you hold your arm out like you were holding a bow, it rests on the top, with the strap buckling underneath. Will let know know more when I know more.

[Effingham]

OKay, I still haven't heard anything from the British Museum, so I decided to get creative.....this is in process....

The rose is a petal short. Details, details...

Nice work, man. Damn.

You really should send a picture of this to Dr. Thornton by way of thanks for her information. She'd probably enjoy seeing the piece "in all its glory."

[Jantien van Vranckenvoert]

BANG ON, Effingham! Only one person at the A&S competition noticed that! I did it as a personl preference, I did not feel right about depicting it as is.....so I made it a four petaled rose, or a dogwood, if you prefer.

[Effingham]

BANG ON, Effingham! Only one person at the A&S competition noticed that! I did it as a personl preference, I did not feel right about depicting it as is.....so I made it a four petaled rose, or a dogwood, if you prefer.

I was wondering if that was what it was. It struck me as a much more logical reason for the four-petal flower.

Again, I have to say.... Damn.

[Sigeric]

Jantien, this is very nice work!

I've been researching this piece for several months and have been compiling articles from different books and research, people have done. (I wanted to recreate what they did, but you beat me to it...lol). Now I have someone to talk techniques with...hint..hint..

Even though the "Y" strap is more than likely how the original was created, we can't rule out the lacing. One of the things I found was that an additional 2 or 3 pieces of leather were often times attached to either side of the main piece you created. We have to keep in mind that this bracer is relitively small (just over 4" x 5" total size). That's not a lot of protection. These extra pieces seem to be to have been attached as a practical use, to protect the arm and to keep your garment sleeve out of the string. One of the wood carving prints from that time period shows one piece of leather attached towards the wrist and two pieces towards the elbow. It shows all these parts laced together.

KilKenny... you asked about the other side. It is blank, which I guess makes sense since this is the side the string would hit against. This particular bracer is rigid, holding it's shape. The British Museum has made the comment that it was Cuir Bouilli, which was also commen for the time period.

Jantien, please keep us posted if you decide to write back to Dr. Dora. Her notation regarding Red pigment on the lettering, was very interesting because it's not noted in any documention I've found so far. I wonder about other parts, if they had color or not.

Thanks again for sharing.
Sigeric

P.S. FYI... there is a Medieval Leather Yahoo group out there (that's how I found your post).

[Micke D]

One of the wood carving prints from that time period shows one piece of leather attached towards the wrist and two pieces towards the elbow. It shows all these parts laced together.

Is it possible for you to show a photo of this type of bracer? I don't think I have seen that print.

I must say that most, if not all, of the medieval bracers I have seen is smaller than this one.

[Sigeric]

I will see if I can get it scanned this weekend and post it.