TWO RARE GERMAN ARM-DEFENCES OR 'SPLINTS', NUREMBERG, EARLY 16TH CENTURY almost forming a pair, each comprising a broad couter shaped to the point of the elbow, one stamped with Nuremberg control-mark, gutter-shaped fore-arm defence cut with a central slot, and four shorter plates for the hands (small areas of pitting and minor delamination) 42cm; 16 1/2in (2) Arm-defences such as these were typically provided as parts of infantry armour known as 'Almain rivets'. Similar defences are preserved in the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds (inv.no. III.773), the West Gate Museum, Winchester, and Mendelsham Priory, Suffolk. See A. R. Dufty and W. Reid 1968 pl. CXXII, G. F. Laking 1920-2 vol. V, pp.240-1 and C. Blair 1958, pp. 118-19.