Pauldrons: HEN.M.17F-1933

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

• Pauldrons
• Vambraces
• pair of pauldrons and vambraces

Categories

• Armour

Description

A pair of pauldrons and vambraces, for use by a cuirassier, composed of elements of a similar period and fashion. The pauldrons are each formed of nine lames that overlap outwards from the fifth. The first to fifth lames extend inwards over the chest and the back. The fifth lame is expanded downward at both the front and the rear to the level of the bottom of the eighth lame. The expanded portions have rounded lower inner corners and are flanged outwards at their outer edges where they overlap the lames beneath them which extend only to the inside of the arm. The sixth lame of the left pauldron and the sixth and seventh lames of the right pauldron are repaired with riveted internal patches. All lames of the pauldrons are connected to one another and to the turners beneath them at their front and rear ends by modern round-headed rivets with internal washers. The first and fifth to ninth lames are connected to one another and to the turners beneath them at their centres by modern internal leathers. The rivets at the front ends of the lames appear to have been supplemented at various points by further internal leathers. The apex of the first lame of each pauldron is pierced with a large rectangular hole above a modern double-ended, tongued iron buckle that serves to suspend the pauldron from a strap that issues from each side of the collar.
The vambraces are each formed of a tubular turner, a tubular upper cannon, a winged bracelet couter of five lames, and a tubular lower cannon. The turner is closed by an overlapped and riveted join at the rear. Its lower edge is bordered by a raised rib, the hollowed underside of which locks over and rotates on the outward-flanged upper edge of the upper cannon. The upper cannon is closed by an overlapped and riveted join at its rear. Its lower edge has a plain inward turn at the inside of the elbow where it is cut away in a concave curve. The couter is formed of five lames that overlap outwards from the third which completely encircles the arm and is closed at the rear by an overlapped and riveted join. The third lame is shaped to the point of the elbow which is in each case restored by a riveted internal patch, and expands to a moderately large wing at the front and the rear. The lames of the couter are connected to one another and to the upper and lower cannons by modern round-headed rivets with internal washers. The tapering tubular lower cannon is formed of an inner and an outer plate: the former fitting within the latter. The inner and outer plates are connected to one another at the rear by a single internal hinge on the right vambrace, and a pair of modern external hinges on the left vambrace. They are fastened to one another at the front by a plain circular stud that is riveted to the inner plate and engages a hole in the outer plate. The outer plate of the lower cannon of the vambrace is of North Italian make and associated. It bears traces of etched bands of decoration and has a file-roped inward turn at its lower edge. The inner plate of the lower cannon of the right vambrace is a modern restoration. The rear of the wing of the couter and the rear of the outer plate of the lower cannon of the left vambrace, are repaired with riveted internal patches. The outer plate of the lower cannon of the left vambrace is pierced with a large hole at the front of its lower edge. The main edges of the pauldrons and vambraces, with the exception of those of the outer plate of the right lower cannon, have plain inward turns bordered by pairs of incised lines. The secondary edges of the pauldrons and vambraces are also bordered by pairs of incised lines. Part of the composite three-quarter armour HEN.M.17A-G-1933.

Notes

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

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest