Left Gauntlet, 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

Dimensions12 × 18 cm (4 3/4 × 7 1/16 in.), 1 lb, 1 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 number2014.74.15

DescriptionGAUNTLETS: These too appear to be a matched pair, and belong to the armor. Both are similarly constructed; the right is described here. Bell-shaped cuff shaped to the back of the band, flaring out at the curved, turned and roped opening at the top. This is bordered by a wide, shallow-recessed etched band filled by running foliated tendrils, grotesques and martial trophies on a blackened stippled ground. This band is in turn filled by restored brass-capped iron lining-rivets which retain a band within. A narrow bright fillet separates the decoration band from a parallel row of the embossed and gilded semi-circles.

As preserved, only the mainplate over the back of the hand is presently fitted, there are empty or recessed holes suggesting that an inner wristplate was also once mounted but is now lost from both gauntlets. The cuff has a low oval for the wrist-bone, roped, gilded and framed by blackened stippling.

Riveted to either side of the cuff edge just below this is a metacarpal defense of six lames overlapping towards the cuff. These lames are curved to the back of the hand, and of more-or-less equal depth over their lengths, and rise in blunt points at the brass-capped iron rivets at the squared ends. A single hole at the internal basal medial line of each lame and the cuff itself suggests that there was also once a narrow articulating leather as well. The lowest of the metacarpal plates is deeper than its mates.

Riveted to the basal corners of this is a boxed, file-roped knuckle-plate which has gilded guilloche on the faces of the transverse rib, and divergent foliate stalks on gilded, stippled grounds at the bilobated pivots on either end. This plate itself overlaps and is riveted to another plate, this shaped for the base of each finger, with gilded guilloche extending along the basal edge.

Riveted within this plate are the restored leathers to which are in turn riveted the oblong finger scales. These are curved to the fingers, tapering as they overlap towards the fingertips. The edge of each scale is bevelled and bordered by gilded guilloche. The two complete fingers of the right gauntlet have rounded terminal lames that are embossed to resemble the fingernail. This has gilded foliation on a stippled ground, and at the center is a domed, brass-capped iron rivet.

At the inner side of the lowest metacarpal plate, fastened by a short restored leather is a pointed thumb-plate with four restored laminations.

The sets in which the gauntlets were used are less clear. They could have included Stech- and Feldkueriss (p. 55, fig. 5, 6 of Gamber), Kueriss (p. 59), Harnasch (p. 76, fig. 18), and leichter Reiterharnisch (p. 77, fig. 19, ibid.).
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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