Spaudlers: HEN.M.137-1933

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

• Spaudlers
• Vambraces
• pair of spaudlers and vambraces

Categories

• Armour

Description

Pair of spaudlers and vambraces, of a type known as 'splints' for wear with a type of infantry armour known as an 'almain rivet', and decorated in the 'black and white' fashion. Each is formed of a spaudler of three lames, a gutter-shaped upper cannon, a shell-like, one-piece couter and a gutter-shaped lower cannon. The spaudler is formed of three downward-overlapping lames that protect the outside of the shoulder only. The first lame is considerably taller than the other two and is shaped to the point of the shoulder. Its convex upper edge is pierced at its apex with a pair of lace-holes. The front hole on the left spaudler is filled with an externally-flush rivet. The lames of the spaudler are connected to one another and to the upper cannon by modern, round-headed rivets at the rear, and modern internal leathers retained by a single externally-flush rivet on each lame at the front and centre. The central leather is missing on the left spaudler. The rivets that connect the first lame to the second lame, and the third lame to the upper cannon at the rear of the left vambrace are fitted with octagonal, internal washers. The hole at the rear of the third lame of the right spaudler, for the rivet that connects it to the lame above, has broken out, requiring a new hole for the rivet to be pierced below it. Modern, decorative round-headed rivets occupy construction-holes that align with the rivet-holes for the front leather on the right spaudler. The rear edge of the first lame of the right spaudler is pierced with a rivet-hole, possibly of later date. The gutter-shaped upper cannons of the vambraces are overlapped by the spaudlers at their straight upper edges. Their lower, inner corners are cut away diagonally to clear the insides of the elbows. Each upper cannon is fitted at its front and rear edge with an externally flush rivet retaining fragments of the straps that secured it around the arm. The rear rivet on the right cannon has been replaced by one with a round head and octagonal internal washer. Each upper cannon is connected to the couter and then to the lower cannon by an internal leather. The leather is connected to each element by a single, modern, externally-flush rivet. The shell-like, one-piece couters of nearly rectangular form have straight rear edges, convex front edges, and straight upper and lower edges that converge slightly towards the insides of the elbows. They are each curved to the arm, slightly shaped to the point of the elbow and medially puckered at the inside of the elbow. The gutter-shaped lower cannons of the vambraces have straight lower edges. Their upper, inner corners are cut away in concave curves to clear the insides of the elbows. Both the lower edges and the cut-outs have inward turns decorated with widely-spaced pairs of diagonal notches. The spaudlers and vambraces are decorated in the 'black and white' fashion with bright bands and borders set against a black-painted ground. The spaudlers and upper cannons are each decorated with three raised, vertical bands, that diverge slightly and merge into a raised border at the upper edge. The couters are decorated with raised borders at their upper and lower edges and with raised bands over the points of the elbows, the upper and lower edges of which converge to a point at the inner ends of the medial puckers. The lower cannons are each decorated with five raised, vertical bands, and the turned edges with pairs of narrow, recessed bands separated by raised ribs.

Notes

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

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest