Main Plate for a Right Pauldron (shoulder guard) with attached Besagew (armpit guard)

Cultureprobably German

Datelate 1400s–early 1500s

Mediumsteel

Dimensions11 cm (4 5/16 in.), 5.5 oz (weight with besagew)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.885

DescriptionSteel. Lame pointed at front terminal & slightly cut out at armpit. On front face is riveted circular besagew, lightly embossed with 6 plain ribs radiating from its center in spoke-like fashion. Lame deepens as it curves rearward across arm & onto shoulder-blade. Here it is shell-like in form, decorated with rippled spray of 6 shallow flutes. At end of these, plate edge is corroded but was probably once cusped. On upper & lower edges, empty holes or flat-headed rivets retaining fragments of leathers within indicate mounting for lames now lost. Slightly cut out at the armpit, the lame expands rearward over the shoulder-blade. The posterior edge, now greatly reduced, was apparently once cusped (cf. to A.60 and A.62 at Vienna; see Blair fig. 5, 189-90). The shell-like rear of the plate is decorated with a divergent, rippled spray of six flutes (this style noted by c. 1470, see Blair 97). The narrowing anterior terminal is obliquely cut to produce a point.

On the front face is a permanently attached besague, secured by a domed rivet. The besague is circular, its nearly flat face lightly embossed with six raised plain ribs in a spoke-like pattern. The anterior upper edge has what appears to be the corroded remains of a rivet hole, and near the posterior upper terminal is a corroded large washer with remnants of a leather (both probably for the now-lost lames above). Above and left of the besague rivet on the lame is a flattened rivet, also retaining fragments of a leather; this too was attached to the lame above. To the rear of this, on the anterior side of the cut-out for the upper cannon of the vambrace, is another rivet with nail-like head. While no mate or mounting hole can be found on the corroded posterior side, this rivet undoubtedly secured the now lost lames to the gutter-shaped vambrace (see for example Gamber fig. 54).
ProvenanceRhodes Beshiklash his brother in Paris Louis R. Bachereau Bashford Dean. Purchased by John W. Higgins on 28 September 1929, as "Odd lot 3" from the Estate of Bashford Dean (Riverdale NY). Price paid for lot, including #928, 929, 1617. Given to Armory 8 January 1947. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2104.

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