Backplate (body armour): HEN.M.20D-1933

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown (Possibly)

Entities

• Backplate (body armour)

Categories

• Armour

Description

Backplate with associated skirt. The backplate is formed in one piece with a broad, shallow neck-opening and a short flange at the waist. The arm-openings and the neck-opening have file-roped inward turns bordered by single incised lines. The incised line around the neck-opening projects downwards as a narrow chevron at its centre. The backplate is decorated with three pairs of incised lines that diverge from its waist to the centres of its neck and arm-openings. A modern shoulder-strap is riveted at each shoulder. Modern single-ended tongued iron buckles have been incorrectly riveted beneath each armpit to connect the backplate to a breastplate. A pair of holes are pierced at each side of the waist for the attachment of a missing waist-belt. A later bolt of uncertain function protrudes internally from the centre of the waist-flange. Attached by a modern round-headed screw and square nut at each side of the waist-flange is an associated skirt formed of two plates joined medially by an internal hinge. The skirt is transversely boxed and decorated with a file-roped rib along the angle of the boxing. Each side of the skirt is pierced near its upper edge with a horizontal slot that would originally have served to suspend it from pierced rectangular studs projecting from the waist-flange of the backplate. The upper edge of the skirt is decorated with a single incised. line. A double-ended tongued iron buckle of uncertain function is riveted at each side of the lower edge of the skirt. Pairs of leathering-rivets at the lower edge of the skirt show that it would originally have been extended downwards by one or more lames. Part of the composite armour HEN.M.20A-H-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

17th Century, Early#
Production date: circa AD 1610

Note

The backplate and skirt are bright with a partly mottled medium to heavy patination. The neck and arm-openings show some denting, cracking and delamination of the metal.