Breastplate

Dateabout 1570–1575

Mediumsteel and leather

Dimensions45 × 44 × 17.5 cm (17 11/16 × 17 5/16 × 6 7/8 in.), 7 lb 6 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsNuremberg Beschau below neck, to right of medial ridge (cf. this to no. 36, p. 137 of Das Muenchner Zeughaus). Single, wedge-like marks stamped within, near left edge of mainplate and each gusset near lower rivet, each fauld lame near right rivet on top and lower plates and above left rivet in middle. Punched alignment marks at top and bottom of medial ridge and flanking waist.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1149.3

DescriptionBoxish, peaked BREASTPLATE with pointed neck & gussets having boxed, file-roped turns. Riveted fauld of 3 lames carrying strapped tassets of 7 deep lames each, & with terminal lame deepening to medial point.

This is German, from Nuremberg, c. 1570-75. It is boxish, with a sharp medial ridge extending to the waistflange, and dipped slightly at a peak at about three-quarters of its length. The neck is bluntly pointed, with a boxed, deeply file-roped turn. There is a pair of flexible gussets, similarly turned as the neck, the top of each fitted with a restored, bilobated tongued iron buckle.

There is a narrow, dipped waist-flange, at the middle and ends of which is riveted a fauld of three lames. Each of these is of more or less equal depth over its length and to one another. The top lame is pointed at the ends while those below are squared. The set works on a pair of internal leathers and sliding rivets at the ends. The upper edge of the basal lame has two sets of three holes (the middle of which on each is filled) for tasset straps. This lame also rises in a very low, wide, turned and roped curve at the fork.

The breastplate is undecorated save for a deeply cut inverted ogival line just below the neck.
ProvenanceAnonymous Eastern European collection Bashford Dean Purchased by John W. Higgins on November 23, 1928 from American Art Association (NY), lot no. 145 (Dean armor sale). Given to the Museum on December 31, 1931. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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