Backplate for Heavy Cavalry Use, decorated with etched bands and borders

Artistprobably Michel Witz the Younger (Austrian, Innsbruck, 1510–1588)

Dateabout 1530

Mediumsteel and leather

Dimensions43 × 23 × 17 cm (16 15/16 × 9 1/16 × 6 11/16 in.), 6 lb (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsStruck at each side of the top of the breastplate and at the right side of the top of the backplate, is the mark of the Austrian Imperial Arsenal, the Austrian "Bindenshild" (gules, a fess argent).

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1166.5

DescriptionComprising a backplate with a culet of two lames.

The BACKPLATE is formed of a single piece of metal, gently shaped to the shoulder-blades and the hollow of the back. It is cut at its upper end and sides with concave neck- and arm-openings bearing prominent inward turns decorated with bold roping en suite with that of the breastplate and tassets. Attached at the top of each shoulder by a flat-headed rivet with a circular internal washer is a modern shoulder-strap intended to engage the buckle riveted at the top of each shoulder of the breastplate. Pierced below the rear end of each of these shoulder-straps, and in line with them, is a rivet hole that probably served to attach an internal shoulder-strap that projected forward to a pair of lace-holes in the gussets of the breastplate. Attached at each side of the waist of the backplate by a round-headed rivet is a modern leather strap. The rivet at the right side has a circular washer of iron under its head, while that at the left side has a rosette washer of brass under its head. The two straps form a waist-belt that fastens around the front of the breastplate by means of a double-ended, tongued iron buckle that terminates the longer, left strap. The buckle, which has a rectangular distal loop and a D-shaped proximal loop decorated with file-roping, is of some age but probably not original. The lower edge of the backplate is flanged outwards to receive the culet. The waistline rises to its center.

The CULET is formed of two transversely-curved, upward-overlapping lames, each of which has cropped corners and is decorated at the center of its upper edge with a filed ogee between V-shaped nicks. The lames are connected to the waist-flange of the backplate and to one another at each side and at their centers by internal leathers. The leathers were originally attached by pairs of rivets, all of which are externally flush except for those in the lowest lame which are round-headed with circular internal washers. The lower ends of the right and central leathers are now incorrectly retained by only one of the pairs of rivets originally intended to retain them.

Construction-holes at the outer ends of both lames of the culet are occupied by purely decorative round-headed rivets. The construction-holes in the first lame align with the outer of the underlying pairs of rivets that attach the outer connecting-leather to the waist-flange of the backplate. The construction-holes in the second lame, however, fall between the underlying pairs of rivets that attach the same leathers to the first lame. This suggests that a lame is missing from between the present first and second lames, and that the culet, like the fauld, was originally composed of three lames.

The lower edge of the culet is bordered by a total of fourteen rivet-holes for the attachment of the lining-band, of which six also served originally to attach the lower ends of the internal connecting-leathers. The outermost hole at each side is now vacant but is likely to have been occupied by an externally-flush rivet that allowed the overlap of the fauld. The remaining holes are occupied by round-headed rivets with circular internal washers.

The front and rear edges of the neck- and arm-openings of the breastplate and backplate, and the lateral and lower edges of the tassets are bordered by pairs of recessed bands of which the outer ones are slightly wider than the inner ones and separated from them by raised ribs enclosed by pairs of incised lines. The bands at the front and rear of the neck-opening are of shallow V-shaped form. The lower edges of the fauld and culet are in each case bordered by a single recessed band accompanied to the inside by a raised rib enclosed by a pair of incised lines. On the tassets, a pair of narrow, slightly divergent recessed bands, accompanied to the outside by similar ribs, rise upwards from the point of the V-shaped lower edge to its uppermost lame where they curve outwards to either side of a raised lozenge to form a stylized fleur-de-lis.

The outer of the pairs of recessed bands that border the neck and arm-openings of the breastplate and backplate, those that border the free edges of the tassets, the single recessed bands that border the lower edges of the fauld and culet, the pairs of divergent recessed bands that run up the centers of the tassets, as well as the waistlines of the breastplate and backplate, are all finely etched with running foliage, flowers and belted balls on a stippled and blackened ground. The decoration that borders the neck-opening of the backplate includes at its center a winged cherub's head between confronted harpies, while that which borders the neck-opening includes, also at its center, a full-faced sun-in-splendor enclosed within a circular frame and flanked by a pair of addorsed suns-in-splendor in profile between harpies.

The etched decoration of the cuirass varies in its details from one band to another. For example, whereas most of the bands show scrolling foliage of an alternating character, the bands at the arm-openings of the backplate are entirely symmetrical in their design and incorporate masks and trophies not seen elsewhere in the decoration of the cuirass. The lower edge of the culet is decorated with a repeated pattern of leaves that diverge symmetrically from a central stem and are interrupted by transverse bars or flowerheads. The same design occurs in the pairs of divergent bands that run up the center of each tasset and at the outer ends of the border of the neck-opening of the breastplate. The lozenge-shaped boss forming the central element of the stylized fleur-de-lis that decorates the first lame of each tasset, is bordered by an engrailed line. A single incised line decorates the backplate medially.

The cuirass is bright with an overall light patina showing some patches of heavier pitting and minor blemishes. The metal shows evidence of delamination at a few points. The etched decoration exhibits a moderate amount of wear, greater at some points than others.

The cuirass appears to have been reduced in girth at some time, quite probably in its working life. This has been effected by cutting the sides of both the breastplate and the backplate. As a result the latter is now difficult to fit within the former, and both elements lack the construction-holes that one would expect to find at their sides. In addition, all of the transverse bands of etching of the cuirass appear, with the sole exception of that occurring at the bottom of the left arm-opening of the backplate, to have been cut through. It is conceivable that the earlier-discussed reduction of the culet from three lames to two lames may have been contemporary with the reduction in the girth of the cuirass.
ProvenanceStadtrath Richard Zschille (Grossenhain, Saxony) Oliver H.P. Belmont (New York and Newport) Clarence H. Mackay (died 1939) Purchased by Museum on April 1, 1940 from Jacques Seligmann & Co. (NYC), agents for estate of Clarence H. Mackay, dealer's no. A-41/114. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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