Does anyone have a primary source for the mail gauntlet used in SCA Rapier Combat.
I have a tertiary source:
There is one tiny mention in George Cameron Stone's "A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and All Times - Together with some closely related subjects". Not the best reference book, I know, but here's what the entry under "Fencing Gauntlet, Duelling Gauntlet" says:
"A gauntlet for the left hand especially designed for parrying a thrust or seizing an opponent's blade. The scales on the fingers lapped upwards, the reverse of the ordinary method, in order that a sword point could not catch under them. In addition, the palms where often lined with mail, so that a blade could be grasped with impunity. Late 16th and 17th centuries".
Nope. My research so far indicates that it was a plate gauntlet similar to the riding gauntlets you see in the English Civil War, I have also come across the quote about the mail palm for blade grasping. I would have to look it up.
They are called "guanti da presa". Supposedly there is at least one extant example in a small Italian museum. Check Blair and Tarassuk's Encyclopedia of Arms and Weapons.
Last edited by Marshal on Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Extant pair either C16 or C17th in the Royal Armouries (in the defense gallery), mail backed, can;t remeber if the off hand was mail palmed.
I had images somewhere but lost them in a PC crash a few years back. If an email to the RA can get you details prod me and i'll get some snaps next time i'm up there (early new year i suspect).
nathan wrote:Extant pair either C16 or C17th in the Royal Armouries (in the defense gallery), mail backed, can;t remeber if the off hand was mail palmed.
I had images somewhere but lost them in a PC crash a few years back. If an email to the RA can get you details prod me and i'll get some snaps next time i'm up there (early new year i suspect).
I just have a 3.2 mega pixel SLR digital cam. Truely 1/3 of the images come out bad. Winterfell has a sweet cam that kills mine, next trip I take I am upgrading
KMinion wrote:James B. when you took these pics could you see the back side of the gloves? Were they mail covered? scale? bare?
Any guesses on the ring size? Looks like ~20G 3/16".
The maille covers at least the back of the hand and likely the fingers to swat away thrusts but I cannot recall for sure. The rings looked to me 18 to 20g and 2-3mm riveted which is common in 16th century maille items I have seen like capes, collars, shirts, sleeves.
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