Backplate
Dateabout 1580
Mediumfire-blued steel
Dimensionsmounted with breastplate: 43.5 × 36.9 × 29 cm (17 1/8 × 14 1/2 × 11 7/16 in.), 11 lb, 4 oz (total weight)
ClassificationsArms and Armor
Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection
Object number2014.755.2
DescriptionThis is associated to the breastplate. Although the form, construction and character of the halves are similar the poor alignment at the waistline and arm openings shows that they were not part of the original cuirass. The backplate is quite probably from the same source as the breast. It is rather boxish, fashioned from one piece of steel, with no provision for the shoulder-blades, and extends down nearly straight at the sides to a narrow, level waist-flange that curves across the back. The backplate is beaten well up over the shoulder tops which are nearly level. The neck opening is only very slightly depressed, but fairly deep front to rear.
The arm openings are deeply curved, and both here and at the neck are turned as those of the breastplate. Near the top of each shoulder is fitted a rivet with a flattened head, apparently to receive the slotted end of a leather shoulder-strap.
Below the arms, at the waist, both sides are pierced for waiststraps. Only the domed iron rivet and the crushed brass rosette remain on the left side, retaining a fragment of the leather belt. The basal edge is prolonged in a flange that is pierced near its ends, below the waist-belt mounts for the waist-lame (s) now lost.
The overall blued (now russet) finish of both back and breastplates is apparently original.
ProvenancePurchased by John W. Higgins from Fenton & Sons,Ltd. (London) on 7 July 1926. Price paid: L12 ($58.44). Given to the Armory on 26 December 1946. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.
On View
Not on view
Michel Witz the Younger
about 1530
Michel Witz the Younger
1530s
