Backplate (body armour): M.13D-1941

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

• Backplate (body armour)
• backplate with skirt

Categories

• Armour

Description

Backplate with skirt, of munition quality, for infantry use, originally without the skirt. Formed of a central plate, a pair of side-plates, and a later-associated waist-plate and modern skirt of four lames. The backplate has straight upper and lower edges. The lateral edges of the central plate diverge upwards and outwards to bisect the arm-openings which have plain, outward turned edges. They overlap the inner edges of the side-plates and are secured to them by three modern, round-headed rivets with circular, internal washers in each case. Secured within each of the upper corners of the central plate by a pair of modern, round-headed rivets with circular or octagonal internal washers is a modern, bifurcated, leather shoulder-strap. The upper edge of the central plate is pierced at its centre with a pair of lace-holes. Fitted within the lower edge of the backplate is a waist-plate which is retained by three modern, round-headed rivets with circular, internal washers: one at the centre of the main plate, and another at the outer end of each of the side-plates. Attached by a modern, round-headed rivet at either side of the waist-plate is a modern leather strap, the left of which terminates in a plain, single-ended, modern, iron buckle. The lower edge of the waist-plate is flanged outwards to receive the skirt of four upward-overlapping lames of which the fourth is deeper than the rest and descends to an obtuse point at the centre of its lower edge. The lames are connected to one another and to the waist-plate at each side by modern, round-headed rivets with circular, internal washers. The centre of the fourth lame is decorated with a pair of horizontally aligned modern, round-headed rivets. Part of the composite Spanish armour M.13A-K-1941.

Notes

History note: From the collection of Dr Bashford Dean, Riverdale, Long Island, New York. According to a manuscript note by F.H. Cripps-Day, dated December 1926, in his grangerised copy of G.F. Laking, A Record of European Armour and Arms, [section on jacks in volume titled 'mail'], now preserved in the library of the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, 'I exchanged [a jack] with Dean for a Gothic Spanish suit made up. I wanted a Gothic suit but parted with a rare piece'. The jack, from a house in Tonbridge, Kent, is now part of the Bashford Dean Memorial Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Mr Francis Henry Cripps-Day.

Legal notes

Given by Mr F.H. Cripps-Day

Place(s) associated

• Nuremburg

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1941-06) by Cripps-Day, Francis Henry

Dating

16th Century, Early#
Production date: circa AD 1510

Note

South Germany, Nuremberg

The backplate and waist-plate are bright with patches of light patination, while the skirt is bright with somewhat heavier induced patination.

The backplate was originally made for wear without a waist-plate and skirt. The waist-plate now fitted to it is a modern association while the skirt is of entirely modern manufacture.