Greaves: M.13H-1941

Maker(s)

Unknown (Probably)

Entities

• Greaves
• pair of greaves

Categories

• Armour

Description

Pair of greaves, for heavy cavalry use, composed of elements of a similar period and fashion with restorations. Each formed of a front and a rear plate closely shaped to the lower leg and remaining open at the inside rear of the calf. The medially-ridged front plate overlaps the rear plate at the outside where it is joined to it by a pair of modern, external hinges that are shaped around the single, rounded-headed rivets that retain them at either end. The front plate has a nearly straight upper edge that is pierced with a hole at its inner end and fitted with a turning-pin with an internal, octagonal washer at its outer end. A later hole is pierced just within the turning-pin. The lower edge of the front plate, which terminates at the height of the ankles, is cut away in an arch at the front where it has a plain, outward-turned edge. The lower edge is decorated to either side of the arch with modern file-roping, and pierced with a small wiring-hole. Attached by modern, rosette-headed rivets to the top and bottom respectively of the outer edge of the front plate are modern straps that engage the corresponding, elaborately-decorated, modern, single-ended, tongued buckles that are attached by externally-flush rivets at the inner edge of the rear plate. The right front plate is extensively repaired with riveted internal patches at its upper end, and its inner and lower edges. The left front plate is a modern restoration made to match the right one. The right rear plate is medially ridged, whereas the left one is not. In each case the lower edge of the rear plate is straight and the upper edge is cut away in a diagonal, concave curve to clear the back of the knee. Both the upper and lower edges have file-roped inward turns. The lower edge of the left rear plate is pierced with four holes now plugged with externally-flush rivets. Various other small rivets, mainly at the lower end of the same plate appear to serve to prevent the metal from delaminating. Vacant rivet-holes, probably for retaining hinges, occur just above each of the rivets presently retaining the hinges. A large, riveted and welded internal patch repairs the upper part of the outer edge of the plate, while a smaller patch repairs its lower edge. Vacant rivet-holes, probably for retaining hinges, occur a short distance above and below the rivets presently retaining the hinges on the right rear plate. 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. The character of the front plate of the right greave suggests that it may have been one of the many pieces from the armoury of the Knight of St John at Rhodes that Bashford Dean acquired from the Parisian dealer Louis Bachereau. Mr Francis Henry Cripps-Day.

Legal notes

Given by Mr F.H. Cripps-Day