Half-Shaffron (horse's head armor)
Culture
German
perhaps Saxon
Date1590–1600
Mediumblued (later blackened) steel with leather and iron
Dimensions31 × 27.6 × 12.7 cm (12 3/16 × 10 7/8 × 5 in.), 2 lb 1.5 oz (weight)
ClassificationsArms and Armor
Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection
Object number2014.967
DescriptionAs preserved, it is of demi-shaffron form. The mainplate is forged from one piece of steel with integral ear, a riveted plume-pipe and a one-lame poll-plate. A seam line along the top of the eye plates seems to suggest that these are separate from the mainplate, and that the object may once have been a full shaffron, cut down perhaps c. 1700 for ceremonial use, and the eye-guards added at this time. The whole was once blued, and later over-painted with foliate tendrils extending from either eye up the face of the mainplate to converge on the upper half. The assembly was itself later over-painted entirely in black.
The mainplate without medial ridge is broad and full, and beaten out into curved guards at the eyes and ears. Those for the ears are short, and bluntly pointed at the plain, angular, inwardly turned tops. Low, curved guards protect the eyes, producing a near-level basal edge when viewed head-on. The edge above the eyes is turned like that of the ears, but is unturned between them, suggesting that the shaffron was once a full-length type. The medial region of the mainplate is pierced with two transverse pair of small holes for lining draw-strings, one set anove the other, on the upper half, and has a simple tapered tubular plume-pipe, also blackened, riveted through lobated mounts on the lower half region between the eyes. There are no cheekpieces or obvious mounts.
The perimeter of the plate is fitted with near flush lining-rivets. These retain the leather band and horsehair-stuffed leather lining within. All mounting straps are lost; some were apparently replaced during the piece's working life. At the unturned rear edge of the mainplate is a poll-plate of one piece. This is attached only by the lining itself. The poll-plate is curved to the neck, with cut-outs at the ears. It is pierced at mid-height with a pair of small holes for drawstrings. The edges are turned as above.
The shaffron has a blued surface beneath the later, but apparently old black paint. Thicker bands of paint at the edges may indicate the presence of silver bands beneath. No sign of the white-line borders are visible at present.
If the defense was not originally part of some portion of WAM 2014.1154 it almost certainly was associated and used with it during the working life of the former. Except for the overpainted tendrils noted, the only other decoration is a thin, incised line setting off the base of each eye-guard.
Label TextAs in many of the cultures of Eurasia and Africa, the military elite of medieval Europe were mounted: the word for “knight” in almost every European language actually means “horseman.” A well trained warhorse was expensive, and a knight’s steed often wore at least a head protector, and sometimes additional armor for the neck and body.ProvenanceCollection of Prince Ernst Henrich of Saxony (to 1925) and the Dresden Rüstkammer. Purchased with armor HAM# 2548 on 27 July 1939 at Christie's (London), lot 54, from the Clarence H. Mackay sale. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.
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