Breastplate (body armour): HEN.M.108-1933

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown (Probably)

Entities

• Breastplate (body armour)

Categories

• Armour

Description

Breastplate for infantry or light cavalry use by a man of large girth. Of rounded, medially-ridge form, projecting forward over the belly. The shallow neck-opening has a bold, angular, inward turn. The arm-openings are each pierced at their upper and lower ends with rivet-holes for the attachment of missing moveable gussets. The lower edge of the breastplate is pierced near its outer ends with rivet-holes for the attachment of a missing waist-plate. The top of the right shoulder is pierced with a pair of later wiring-holes. The top of the left shoulder may have been similarly pierced, but is now broken away. A prominent threaded stud is riveted just below the centre of the neck. The thread is hand-cut and possibly contemporary. It may have been for bolting on a reinforce or the lower edge of a helmet or face-defence.

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, Early#
Circa 1510 CE - 1520 CE

Note

Bright with heavy pitting overall, and rust perforations at the centre of the turn at the neck and at the left side.

Probably German, in the Western European fashion