Backplate of a Field Armor, from a garniture probably made for Ludwig Ungnad von Weissenwolf auf Sunegg

Artist Desiderius Helmschmid (German, Augsburg, 1513–1579)

Artistdecorated by Jörg T. Sorg the Younger (Southern Germany, Augsburg, about 1525 – 1603)

Dateabout 1552

Mediumsteel with embossed, etched, blackened and gilded decoration, with modern brass, velvet, leather and steel

Dimensions47 × 35 × 17 cm (18 1/2 × 13 3/4 × 6 11/16 in.), 5 lbs, 15 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsAll major components are internally marked with HAM accession number in black on a white field.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.74.4

DescriptionThe backplate belongs with the breastplate, and is similarly structured and decorated in like fashion. The mainplate is long, beaten up over the tops of the shoulders, at the squared terminals of which are riveted modern leather straps. Empty, older holes are also found here. The edge at the neck rises in a low arc across its width, and is inwardly turned and roped, as are the edges of the deep openings for the arms. On the sides below are turn-fasteners of recent make; while these could be after the original, it is more likely that some means of securing the cuirass sides was used (such as holes snapping over pegs or the like), and that the present configuration is a relatively modern feature.

The back mainplate is roundedly embossed for the shoulder-blades, and extends down nearly vertically to the basal edge which dips slightly at the straight-cut ends and the medial region. The mainplate overlaps a waistlame shaped to the lower back. The two plates are connected via internal leathers and a medial sliding-rivet. The slot for the sliding rivet has been shortened as on the breastplate. Riveted externally below the leathers are the modern waiststraps, one end of which has a large, rectangular tongued modern buckle of brass. The waistlame extends down in a narrow flange on either end of which is riveted a curved, level rear skirt lame with turned, roped level basal edge.
ProvenancePer Stephen V. Grancsay in the Armory's 1961 catalogue, this armor was inherited from the Sachsen-Altenburg line by the Schwarzburg-Sondershauser in or after 1869. Ex collection, the Duke of Altenburg (Schloss Altenburg, Thuringia, Germany); Prince Schwarzburg-Sondershausen; Clarence H. Mackay (Harbor Hill, Roslyn, L.I., NY). Purchased by Museum on April 1, 1940 from Jacques Seligmann & Co. (NYC), agents for the estate of Clarence H. Mackay, their no. A-20-110. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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