COMPOSITE SOUTH GERMAN HEAVY FIELD ARMOUR

Lot 209

COMPOSITE SOUTH GERMAN HEAVY FIELD ARMOUR, PARTLY NUREMBERG, CIRCA 1540, WITH A NORTH ITALIAN CLOSE HELMET, CIRCA 1570 comprising close helmet with rounded one-piece skull rising to a high roped medial comb, fitted at its nape with a tapering tubular plume-holder and at its front with a frog-mouthed visor (patched at its apex and at the centre of the step beneath its vision-slit), a prow-shaped upper bevor and a transversely boxed lower bevor, all attached by common pivots with radially-fluted domed heads (replaced), the visor fitted at its right side with a slender lifting-peg (replaced), the upper bevor pierced at its right side with nine ventilation-holes in rosette formation connected to one another by incised lines radiating from the central one, and the lower bevor secured to the upper bevor and skull, respectively, at its right side by a swivel-hook and stud and a spring-catch with push-button release, the flanged lower edges of the lower bevor and skull each fitted with three rounded gorget-plates (the uppermost front one patched at its centre, and two articulating-rivets replaced by screws); 'Almain' collar formed of two lames front and rear, the first in each case formed with a boldly roped upper edge, and the lowest rear one fitted at each side with a later hinged peg for the attachment of a pauldron, and the whole fitted at each side with a short integral spaudler of two lames; breastplate with a rounded medially-ridged main plate struck at its upper edge with the quality-control mark of the city of Nuremberg, and fitted at each arm-opening with a moveable gusset, at the right of the chest with a detachable folding lance-rest, and within its lower edge with a waist-lame flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive an earlier fauld of two lames, the second of which is cut at its lower edge with a shallow arch separating a pair of integral tassets each of five lames; matching backplate formed of a main plate struck at its broad shallow neck- opening with the same mark as the breastplate, and fitted within its lower edge with a somewhat narrower waist-lame flanged outwards at its lower edge to receive a culet of one deep lame; large narrow-fronted symmetrical pauldrons each of seven lames (the upper two of the left associated both with one another and with those below them), the front end of the second in each case fitted with a stud to attach a pendent circular besague (restored), each rising at its centre to a low conical boss, the right cut with a semi-circular notch to accommodate a couched lance; fully articulated vambraces, each fitted at its upper end with a turner of one lame (originally surmounted by at least one further lame), and at its elbow with a winged couter of three lames open at the rear (the main plate of the couter and the left upper cannon and turner of the left vambrace associated but from the same series); mitten gauntlets (not a pair but from the same series) each formed of a short, flared and straight-ended cuff with a separate hinged inner plate, five metacarpal-plates, a knuckle-plate decorated with a roped transverse rib, six finger-lames and an old, possibly original , buff leather lining glove; cuisses each formed of a long gutter-shaped main plate fitted at its convex upper end with a short extension-plate (that of the right associated but from the same series) and at its lower end with a winged poleyn of four lames (both associated but from the same series, and the right patched at its inner lower corner); full-length tubular greaves (not a pair but from the same series), the right struck at its upper edge with the quality-control mark of the city of Nuremberg, each cut at the heel with a slit to accommodate a spur and fitted at its front with a broad-toed sabaton of eight lames decorated medially with a file-roped moulding that extends onto the toe cap which is decorated to either side of it with a large, boldly-roped transverse rib; the main edges of the armour formed, except on t