Backplate (body armour): HEN.M.3E-1933

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

• Backplate (body armour)
• Skirt
• backplate with skirt

Categories

• Armour

Description

Backplate with skirt for light field use, decorated with bands in the 'black and white' fashion. Formed of a main plate, a pair of side-plates, and a waist-plate with integral skirt. The main plate is shaped to the shoulder. Its vertical lateral edges bisect the arm-openings. They overlap the side-plates which are in each instance attached to them by modern round-headed rivets with octagonal internal washers. The broad, shallow neck-opening of the main plate is cusped at its centre. Attached within the lower edge of the main plate and the side-plates by five round-headed rivets with octagonal internal washers, is a separate waist-plate which is flanged outward to form a short skirt. The lower edge of the skirt is cusped at its centre and at each side. The arm-openings, the neck-openings and the lower edge of the skirt have file-roped inward turns. Attached at each shoulder by a single round-headed rivet with an octagonal internal washer is a modern leather shoulder-strap. Attached by similar rivets and washers midway along each side-plate is a modern leather strap forming a waist-belt. The broken left strap terminates in a modern double-ended iron buckle, lacking its tongue. The main plate and side-plates are decorated with recessed, bright bands and borders against a blackened ground in the 'black and white' fashion. The border at the neck is of ogee form, and the lateral vertical bands are medially-ridged. The waist-plate and its skirt are decorated with raised, bright bands and recessed bright borders against a blackened ground. Part of the composite half armour HEN.M.3A-E-1933

Notes

History note: Mr James Stewart Henderson of 'Abbotsford', Downs Road, St Helen's Park, Hastings, Sussex

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart

Dating

16th Century
Production date: AD 1570

Note

Differences in the style of its decoration, suggest that the waist-plate and its skirt are associated with the main plate and its side-plates.

South Germany, Nuremberg

The bright bands of the backplate show a light to medium patination. The intervening blackened areas are worn through to bright metal at some points.