Backplate for a Cuirassier

Culture French

Dateearly 1800s, later modified to match 16th-century armor

Mediumsteel with etching

Dimensions41.9 × 35.6 × 17.8 cm (16 1/2 × 14 × 7 in.), 6 lb 5 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.79.1.4

DescriptionEngrailed at the armholes, and etched to match the rest of the suit. 2 culet lames have also been added.
Label TextComplete armors are naturally more appealing to collectors than suits with missing parts, and there has been a thriving trade since the nineteenth-century in mix-and-match suits doctored to make them more harmonious. This piece was originally made for a Napoleonic cuirassier, a heavy cavalryman equipped with torso armor, but it has been etched to make it fit with a suit of 16th-century jousting armor.ProvenanceHollingworth Magniac collection (England; to 1892) Joseph Duveen (NYC and London) Oliver H.P. Belmont (NYC and Newport, RI) Clarence H. Mackay (Roslyn, LI). Purchased by Museum on November 9, 1940 from Jacques Seligmann & Co. Inc. (NYC), agents for estate of Clarence H. Mackay. Armor was numbered #A-52/302 in the Mackay collection. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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