Posts: 297 Location: Indiana
Sat 30 Jan, 2010 10:23 am
At the
Higgins Armory:
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You can always tell by the blackened, thin steel, and the obviously non-movable gorget lames.
Another view:
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"English, second half of 17th century
Steel, iron, pain
Weight: 5 lbs. 15 oz.
By the early 14th century in Europse, armor was used to decorate the chuch tombs of important nobles or military heroes. In the late 16th century, this honor was extended to wealthy merchants who sought recognition of an honorable, chivalric life. This increased demand required reuse and redecoration of old armors, and the making of new ones. Helmets were central to the "achievement of arms," a set of equipment suspended above the monument or effigy of the deceased.
The practice declined by the end of the 16th century, and during the next century armor merely accompanied the deceased's body to the church. Enthusiastic armor collecting in the 19th century resulted in many funerary panoplies being sold off by poor parish clergy to dealers and collectors. "
Funerary helmet of Sir Richard Lee:
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He died during the reign of Elizabeth. This funerary helmet is clearly not English in design, but rather has a German look to the upper bevor, the "duck-billed" look as I like to call it.
Many coats of arms are topped with the barred-visor tourney helm (a very old fashioned type of helmet) but far more of them seem to have frog-mouthed Stechhelms on top:
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