Beschreibung:

A COMPOSITE SOUTH GERMAN THREE-QUARTER FIELD ARMOUR, LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY comprising burgonet with rounded one-piece skull rising to a high medial comb, projecting forward at the brow to an acutely-pointed integral peak (pierced with a later pair of holes at its centre), fitted at it's flanged rear edge with a rounded one-piece neck-guard, at its left rear with a large tubular plume-holder, and at each side with a hinged cheek-piece (the distal end of the hinge of the left replaced) flanged outwards at its lower edge to serve as a continuation of the neck-guard and pierced at its centre with nine auditory holes in a rosette-formation, the skull and neck-guard respectively lined with quilted linen and tanned leather, and the latter cut at its edge with piccadils; collar of four lames front and rear (the upper three in each case partly associated, the uppermost rear one patched at its left end); earlier breastplate, Italian or Flemish about 1520-30, formed of a medially ridged main plate projecting forward over the belly, formed at its upper edge with a broad shallow neck-opening bordered by an indistinct mark, fitted at each side of the chest with a later stud for the attachment of a shoulder strap and fitted at its arm-openings and lower edge respectively with later fixed gussets and an overlapping waist-lame (possibly working-life modifications), the waist-lame fitted at its flanged lower edge with a fauld of two lames, the second of which is associated and cut at the centre of its lower edge with a narrow arch that separates a pair of long medially-ridged tassets each of seven lames (some associated) that extend to just above the knees; backplate formed in one piece with a near-straight upper edge and a flanged lower edge carrying a culet of one deep lame; large symmetrical pauldrons each formed of twelve lames of which four at the front serve as a fan-like extension of the third and main one, and the lowest six protect only the outside of the arm down to the elbow; and long gauntlets each formed of a tubular elbow-length cuff with a separate inner plate, five metacarpal-plates, a knuckle plate decorated with a file-roped transverse rib, a shaped finger-plate and scaled finger-defences of which only one of the right and three of the left are preserved entire, in one case detached; the main edges of all parts of the armour, except its collar, formed with inward turns, in some cases file-roped and, in the case of the burgonet and gauntlets accompanied by recessed borders, and the whole with a black-from-the-hammer finish, partly refreshed with paint See note at front of catalogue for information concerning stands