Lame of a Tonlet (armor skirt) for the Foot Tournament

Culture German , perhaps Augsburg

Dateabout 1520

Mediumetched and blackened steel with brass and leather fragments

Dimensions10 × 52 × 44 cm (3 15/16 × 20 1/2 × 17 5/16 in.), 2 lb, 8 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.796

DescriptionSaid to be ex Rhodes. Condition is much decayed. The decoration is in a stylized "puff-and-slash" style. Deep lame, circularly enclosing the body, with straight-cut terminals at the nearly closed front.

The basal edge is boldly cabled and inwardly turned over a thick wire core. This turn is bordered by a row of brass-capped iron rivets, some of which retain fragments of leather beneath the circular iron washers within. Each terminal has a strong, spring-loaded catch and square hole for the mounts of the plate which once closed the front of the defense.

The surface of the lame is decorated with slightly recessed "slashes" filled with a candelabrum motif, some with banded, globose swelling or human heads, on a finely stippled blackened ground. In one of the slashes, the candelabrum arises from a plinth which has traces of what may be an etched date.

Following the basal edge above the turn is a flame-like etched band which swells upward between the slashes where it is filled with foliate tendrils, cornucopia and reclining figures. The top edge is bordered by an etched band characterized by foliate tendrils, cornucopia terminals and grotesque heads on a finely stippled ground.
ProvenancePurchased by John W. Higgins on May 28, 1931 from Louis R. Bachereau (Paris, France). Given to the Museum on December 26, 1946. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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