Backplate

Culturepossibly English

Dateabout 1620, modified late 1600s

Mediumsteel and brass

Dimensions40 × 39 × 20 cm (15 3/4 × 15 3/8 × 7 7/8 in.)
4 lb 14 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.759

DescriptionThe backplate is much later than any of the other pieces in the former HAM suit. It is probably from a cuirassier or harqebusier armor from the second half of the 17th century, and cannot be specifically assigned to a country of origin.

The backplate is fairly long, of one piece, and beaten up over the tops of the shoulders with squared, wide terminals. The neck opening is broad and level. In fact, it appears to rise ever-so-slightly to its mid-width. The openings for the arms are deeply curved, and like that of the neck, are finished with inward, rolled turns over a wire core, and closely roped with fine file marks.

Rounded for the shoulder-blades, the backplate has a low hollow between them, and wraps around the sides of the body below the arms, tapering slightly to the curved waistline. The backplate is prolonged in a downturned flange of moderate depth, more-or-less equal over its width, without provision for a culet, and has its edge finished en suite.

Restored straps are riveted to the shoulders and sides above the waist, each held by double rivets. The perimeter of the backplate is pierced by a row of punched holes for a cover or lining, probably applied late in its working life; there are some traces of a lining adjoining the rivet holes on the L side.

Decoration consists only of sets of incised narrow lines which border the edges. In addition, extending from the neck and armpits are centered incised lines which intersect ogival pairs of lines that border those described above, and are drawn into a set of three parallel lines which extend to the medial area of the waistline where they terminate, carrying down the flange only as a single, incised line. At the base of each ogive is a later-punched set of dots in a lozenge pattern reminiscent of that found on a number of "Swiss" armors.
ProvenanceV.A. Bachereau (Paris) Dr. Bashford Dean (Riverdale, N.Y.) Mr. Edmund C. Converse (Conyers Manor, Greenwich, CT). Purchased by John W. Higgins from Edmund C. Converse Estate Collection, sale at American Art Association, New York, sale lot no. 294. Given to the Armory on March 21, 1928. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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