Breastplate (body armour): HEN.M.116-1933

Maker(s)

Unknown (Possibly)

Entities

• Breastplate (body armour)

Categories

• Armour

Description

Breastplate, for infantry use. Formed of a medially-ridged main plate and a waist-lame of deep-bellied form. The main plate has concave neck and arm-openings. The neck-opening has a file-roped inward turn bordered by a V-shaped rib enclosed by a pair of incised lines. The arm-openings are each bordered by an incised line and pierced at their upper and lower ends with a rivet-hole for the attachment of a missing gusset. Pierced just below each armpit is a later wiring-hole. Pierced to either side of the neck-opening is a rivet-hole for the attachment of a missing shoulder-strap. Overlapping the lower edge of the main plate, and attached to it at either side by a modern round-headed rivet, is a deep waist-plate which is bordered at its upper edge by a single incised line, and flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive a skirt. The flange is pierced at either side with a rivet-hole for the attachment of a missing skirt. Later wiring-holes are pierced just to the outside of each of these rivet-holes, and to either side of the waist, just above the angle of the flange.

Notes

History note: From the armoury of the Earls of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire, sold by Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1917, 23 June 1921 and 14 June 1923. 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, Mid#
Production date: circa AD 1555

Note

The breastplate is bright with a mottled patination suggesting that its surface originally showed a ' black from the hammer' finish.

Possibly English or Flemish