Breastplate

Date1550–1600

Mediumsteel and leather

Dimensions42 × 34 × 15 cm (16 9/16 × 13 3/8 × 5 7/8 in.), 7 lb 8 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsA stylized "R" or "A" (?) maker's (?) stamp near upper edge to right of medial line of both breast and backplate (cf. to that found on front plate of collar 2014.1149). See photo in digital file. Interior of cuirass has white-painted double "X"'s near mid-height of both breast- and backplate. Dots as on tassets appear on the skirt lames.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1152.3

DescriptionOf heavy steel, with dipped, nearly boxed roped turns at the neck and the armpits, which are fitted with flexible gussets. The breast is divided into four vertical panels by three embossed ridges extending from the center of each gusset and down the center of the breast, the latter forming a peak at about three quarters of the breast length. Neither gusset seems to belong, however that at the left is a closer match. The disused rivets below the buckles riveted to the upper edges of the breast probably secured the slots of the original gussets. The vertical sets inboard of these may have attached buckled leathers (cf. to anime, pp. 128 – 129 of Vital).

To the right of the medial ridge at the neck is a stamped maker's mark of a stylized “R” or ”A”(?). Below this, and forming a cusped frieze is an incised – line decoration, terminating in a lozenge with punched dots at all points, and transversely cut at its base by a pair of incised lines dotted at the ends.

At the basal flange the breastplate is fitted with a skirt of three lames (upper appears associated), pivoted at the terminals, and working on modern sliding rivets and to internal leathers. The terminal lame with shallow, rounded arch is punched in such a fashion as to suggest that the tassets fitted would have been attached by internal leathers and rivets, and that the straps now mounted are incorrectly positioned.

Cf. similar breast and decoration in Vital, pp. 122 – 123, 135, 138, 145; Schneider, #23.
ProvenanceSir Guy F. Laking (England - pre-1907) Clarence H. Mackay (Roslyn, L.I.) Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc. Bought by the Armory from the estate of Clarence Mackay through Jacques Seligman and Co., Inc. (NYC) on 9 November 1940 (their A-48) Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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