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Breastplate (body armour): HEN.M.111-1933

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 31 (Armoury)

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Breastplate, for heavy cavalry use, decorated with fluting in the 'Maximilian' fashion. Formed of a strongly rounded main plate with moveable gussets at the arm-openings, a separate waist-plate and a folding lance-rest. The very shallow neck-opening of the main plate and the gussets have boldly roped inward turns emphasised by pairs of incised lines between each 'strand' of the roping. The main plate is pierced at the right armpit with a pair of vertically-aligned holes and, below them, with a further single hole for the attachment of a folding lance-rest. The latter is secured by two screws with internal, slotted cheese-heads, passing through the upper of the pair of holes and the isolated single hole, into its threaded base-plate. The curved base-plate is decorated with filed, radiating lobes that are alternately cross-hatched and plain. The hinged, curved arm of the lance-rest is decorated with close-set, filed grooves, forming serrations, on its front face and tip, and with geometrical patterns of filed lines, mostly paired, on its underside and ends. Except at its top and sides, the main plate of the breastplate is decorated with twenty-four, vertical, slightly diverging flutes, beneath three horizontal flutes separated by raised ribs emphasised by pairs of incised lines. The gussets at the arm-openings are secured to the main plate by modern, round-headed rivets with octagonal washers at their upper and lower ends. Those at the upper ends move within slots in the gussets. Attached to the scalloped top end of each gusset by a single, externally-flush rivet is a double-ended buckle with a central tongue, filed decoration and a plain, round-headed hasp. The right buckle is a modern restoration made to match the left. Fitted within the lower edge of the main-plate and secured to it by three modern round-headed rivets with octagonal internal washers (missing from the left one), is a waist-plate which is flanged outwards and pierced with a vertical slot at either end for the attachment of a missing skirt. The waist-plate is decorated at the waist-line with three fine, close-set, incised lines.

Notes

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

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Measurements and weight

Depth: 15.7 cm
Height: 36.5 cm
Weight: 3.273 kg
Width: 37.9 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Nuremburg

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

16th Century, Early#
Production date: circa AD 1520

Note

South German, Nuremberg

The breastplate is bright with light to medium pitting overall. The turns at the arm-openings are perforated by corrosion at some points.

This very striking and rounded breastplate is decorated with fluting in the ‘Maximilian’ fashion which was common in the early 16th century. It was used by the heavy cavalry who fought on horseback with lances. The curved arm is a lance rest which was used to help steady and manoeuvre the lance when going into battle. It is hinged so that it could be folded up out of the way.

Components of the work

Decoration
Lance-rest
Parts
Ribs

Materials used in production

Steel

Techniques used in production

Hammered : Formed of a strongly rounded main plate with moveable gussets at the arm-openings, a separate waist-plate and a folding, hinged lance-rest; hammered, shaped, riveted, with filed, fluted and incised decoration, and raised ribs
Formed

Identification numbers

Accession number: HEN.M.111-1933
Primary reference Number: 18581
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/18581 Accessed: 2024-11-08 18:04:43

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/18581 |title=Breastplate (body armour) |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-08 18:04:43|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-18581

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