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Breastplate (body armour): HEN.M.109-1933

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 31 (Armoury)

Maker(s)

Armourer: Seusenhofer, Hans

Entities

Categories

Description

Breastplate with skirt for infantry use. The breastplate is of rounded, one-piece construction, with outward-flanged neck and arm-openings. The edges of the flanges have plain inward turns. A rivet-hole for the attachment of a buckle is pierced at the top of each shoulder, while a pair of lace-holes is pierced at the centre of the neck-opening. The lower edge of the breastplate is flanged outwards to receive a skirt of two upward-overlapping lames, the second of which is deeper than the first and has its plain, inward-turned lower edge cut away in an arch over the crotch. The lames are connected to one another and to the breastplate at their outer ends by round-headed rivets with octagonal internal washers in the case of the upper two. All rivets, with the possible exception of the upper left one are replaced. Later suspension-holes have been pierced beneath each armpit and at either side of the lowest skirt-lame.

Notes

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

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Measurements and weight

Depth: 12.6 cm
Height: 44.5 cm
Weight: 1.393 kg
Width: 33.7 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Innsbruck

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart

Dating

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

Note

A breastplate of the same pattern, bearing the same maker's and ownership marks, was formerly in the collection of Sir James Mann and is now in the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds (Inv. No. III. ). Bruno Thomas & Ortwin Gamber, Die Innsbrucker Plattnerkunst, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, 1954, p. 65, No. 58, identify it as part of a large series of such pieces that were purchased for the Imperial Arsenal between 1508 and 1513. They identify a breastplate in the collections of Schloss Ambrass, near Innsbruck, Inv. No. WA 29, bearing the maker's mark of Oswald Schreiner, as part of the same series (ibid., p.62, No. 45). For information about Hans Seusenhofer and his identified works, see Thomas and Gamber, op. cit., pp. 34 & 64-5.

South German, Innsbruck

The breastplate and its skirt are bright with extensive patination overall. The breastplate shows a pattern of streaks over the belly. Both the breastplate and lowest lame of the skirt show some delamination of the metal.

This fine, undecorated breastplate was made in the Imperial armour workshops established in Innsbruck by Emperor Maximilian I in 1504. It is stamped with the mark of the armourer Hans Seusenhofer, and the Bindenschild (arms) of Austria. The Seusenhofer family made some of the finest armours produced in Europe during the first half of the 16th century. This plain breastplate was made as part of a large order from the Austrian Imperial Armoury between 1508 and 1513.

Components of the work

Parts

Materials used in production

Steel

Techniques used in production

Hammered : The breastplate is of rounded, one-piece construction, with outward-flanged neck and arm-openings; hammered, shaped, riveted
Patinating
Formed

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: HEN.M.109-1933
Primary reference Number: 18576
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 13 April 2021 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Breastplate (body armour)" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/18576 Accessed: 2024-11-04 23:58:26

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/18576 |title=Breastplate (body armour) |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-04 23:58:26|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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