Query. Midline slots in 16th century tournament armours. -- myArmoury.com

Ben Sokol

It's driving me mad.
What are these little slots for?
The only thing I can think of is that they're part of the lance arret.
Help !

Nat Lamb · Posted: Sat 09 Nov, 2013 4:50 am Post subject:

I honestly have no idea, but a possibility is that since these are armours from the period where a rich guy might have a whole set made with interchangeable parts for field/joust/melee etc, that maybe these are some sort of attachment points for the jousting reinforcment?

Neil Bockus · Posted: Sat 09 Nov, 2013 5:06 am Post subject:

I'd think for either pieces of exchange, or to affix a reinforcing plackart in place over the breastplate, especially in later 16th century armors.

Ben Sokol · Posted: Sat 09 Nov, 2013 5:49 am Post subject:

Re-enforcement placart sounds like a good one.
I wonder what happened to them if that is the case. Maybe they weren't as fancy looking or even matched properly.

Who would be the person to ask? Like, who might know?

Neil Bockus · Posted: Sat 09 Nov, 2013 6:02 am Post subject:

Well, plackarts have been made with armors so they'd match. One example is the armor of Sir Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst by Jacob Halder in the Wallace Collection (A62):

http://www.wallacecollection.org/whatson/treasure/45

http://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org/eMus...T&sp=0

As you can see, the plackart was made for/with the armor, and so when assembled with it, looks completely in place. The plackart for that armor is particularly heavy (4.67kg/10.2lbs), but given the year it was made, about 1587, it had to compete with ever more powerful firearms, and I don't know if it was hardened or not.

Robert MacPherson · Industry Professional

Ben,

Those slots are peculiar to Greenwich armors. They accommodate a staple which holds the reenforcing breastplate in place. When the reenforce is in place, a broad, flat pin drops down through the hole in the staple and locks everything together.

Mac

Neil Melville · Posted: Sat 09 Nov, 2013 7:52 am Post subject:

Hi Ben, the Greenwich armour of the 1st Earl of Pembroke, now in Glasgow Kelvingrove Museum, is displayed with its plackart held by an attendant alongside the earl on horseback. He is wearing an anime cuirass from which projects a pin near the top which would fit through a hole in the plackart and be locked in place by a swing hook. I think it also has the staple at the base as well, tho' it's difficult to see the way it's positioned. The plackart was only discovered in 1996 in a private collection and bought by Glasgow Museums a few years later to go with the earl's otherwise complete armour.
Hope this is of interest.
Neil

Ben Sokol · Posted: Sat 09 Nov, 2013 1:11 pm Post subject:

I am satisfied with these responses.
You have all been very kind and helpful.
Madness averted...for the time being.
Happy