Text and a small illustration of a chain mail hood: 1083.28

Materials used in production

Brown ink

Components of the work

Support composed of card Height 223 mm Width 181 mm

Techniques used in production

Handwriting : Pen and brown ink on textured, thin card
Drawing (image-making)

Inscription or legends present

• Text: 13th century - Knight's dress / - Tunic - of linen under the hauberk / Gambeson, of quilted work under the hauberk, quilted vertically, / Hauberk of chain mail with continuous coif and gloves, coif / flattened on the top of the head and glove not divided / into fingers but an aperture left in the centre of the / palm to liberate the hand - the sleeve of the hauberk / sometimes secured at the waist by a lace or strap - / hauberk reaching to the knees, face opening showing / only eye and nose - in some drawings the glove is / seen (?) turned off and hanging from the wrist. / In the second half of the centy the gloves are divided / into fingers. Sometimes the gloves end at the wrist / (and in all cases with archers) then a gauntlet / of scalework is added. / To the elbow of the hauberk sometimes plates of metal / were fixed called coudières, but rarely in this centy. / The hauberk was made with or without a collar. / In the first half of the centy the continuous coif is / nearly flat at the top, in the second half rounded. / The coif is drawn over the head by means of an / opening in the side and then fastened by a lace, / a buckle or a tie - the coif is sometimes / encircled by a fillet / The Hood of chain mail appears designed as an improvement / on the continuous coif by rendering unnecessary the side / opening and lacing about the face, but had the great / disadvantage that as it lay on the shoulders of the / knight it let the lance of the enemy pass beneath / it.
• Location: Recto
• Method of creation: Brown ink

Identification numbers

Accession number: 1083.28
Primary reference Number: 82569
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 3 August 2020 Last processed: Tuesday 13 June 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints