Poldermiton (defense for the right arm)

Dateabout 1485–1490

Mediumsteel, iron and leather

Dimensions34 × 7 cm (13 3/8 × 2 3/4 in.), 2 lb 10 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsOn the inner side of the arm, the wing has five serial dots in an irregularly parallelogram-form pattern. The inside edges of the lames are punched top to bottom with 1, 2, - (central), 3, 4, - (terminal) serial dots. The face of the topmost plate is punched at the inner edge with five dots like those on the lower cannon, in a roughly triangular pattern. The mainlame and that immediately below also have five-dot groups of dots on the outer edge face.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1164.8

DescriptionThe poldermiton is short, of two tapering halves hinged on the outer face and secured closed by a restored strap-and-buckle on the inner face. The pivoting half is drawn out into a curved, shell-like wing embossed with seven low radiating rippled flutings, each accented by a thin incised line. The wing extends out over the side of the elbow where it is pointed, and is deeply concave over the bend of the arm. At the wrist end of this plate, there is riveted a short gutter-like extension with outwardly-turned plain edge. The other half of the cannon has a similarly finished edge, and is decorated with rippled flutes as above radiating from a transverse incised line. Forward of the serial dots is an apparently old patched repair to the inner edge.

The outer half is attached to the couter though a pair of moderately deep lames overlapping toward the wrist. The lame to which the lower cannon is riveted has a scalloped edge bordered above with a thin, incised line. The lame above, which is riveted to the main lame of the couter, is cusped at its pivots and medial line. The main lame of the defense is medially cusped, and is drawn out in an acute ogival point. The face is slightly raised to form deep bands at both upper and lower edges. The inner edge of the lame is finished as a lobed poldermiton in the proper couched position. On the opposite terminal is a vacant, punched hole, probably for a strap inside the elbow, secured at the reconfigured eyelet opposite.

A single lamination like that below the elbow-plate connects the that plate with the gutter-shaped oblong upper cannon above. Low flutes like those below emanate from the upper part, radiating to a cusped sunken band above the elbow. The upper edge is unturned, and embossed as a shallow sunken border, pierced at mid-length with a transverse pair of holes (one broken), and below this with a modern set.
Provenance(probably) ex-Nuremberg "Zeughaus" Germanisches Museum (Nuremberg) (to c. 1905) Counts Erbach-Erbach (Erbach in Odenwald) E. Kahlert und Sohn (Berlin) Clarence H. Mackay (Roslyn, L.I) Purchased by the Armory from Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc. (NYC), agents for the Mackay estate, on 1 April 1940, as #A-43/120. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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