Gorget
Culture
Italian
Datelate 16th–early 17th century, with decoration from 19th century
Mediumreblued steel and brass with gilding and modern leather and velvet
Dimensions11.8 × 26.2 × 21 cm (4 5/8 × 10 5/16 × 8 1/4 in.), 15 oz (weight)
ClassificationsArms and Armor
Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection
Object number2014.1160.2
DescriptionLate 16th/early 17th century in form. Of two associated plates without neck-lames, cut down on their lower edges, later embossed with addorsed volute ribs, and blued and gilded. The two plates are pivoted on a single modern domed rivet at the left and secured at the right by a keyhole-shaped slot snapping over an old but associated domed iron rivet. The plates are formed with an upstanding flange at the neck, roughly turned inward at the edges. Both flanges are encircled with a row of iron rivets to secure a now-lacking lining. The flanges are also incised with a widely spaced pair of incised lines near the upper edge of the foreplate, and a more closely spaced pair near the base of the rearplate. There may once have been collar lames--the upper edge of the rearplate in particular is definitely reworked.
Asselineau 1845 shows a different gorget, worn outside the breastplate, and possibly bearing the Medusa head now mounted on the helmet.ProvenanceEx-collection of prince Peter Soltykoff (St. Petersburg, Russia, ca. 1845)
le Chevalier Raoul Richards (Rome, Italy, no later than 3 March 1890)
V.R. Bachereau (Paris, France, 1890(?)-1892/4(?))
Lazzarone (Italy, 1892(?)-NLT 10 December 1894)
Oliver H.P. Belmont (NYC and Newport, RI, post 1894)
Clarence H. Mackay (Roslyn, L.I., NLT 1939)
Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc. (NYC, to 18 July 1939)
Purchased by Museum on July 18, 1939 from Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc (NYC), agents for estate of Clarence H. Mackay. Higgins Armory Museum (Worcester, 18 July 1939-2014)
Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.
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