Here be some detail shots of the 'MacKay' targaid, at the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow !
This is one is listed as the earliest dated targe which has '1623' engraved on its brass boss.
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![Trip pic Hunterian targe.jpg](files/trip_pic_hunterian_targe_683.jpg)
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![Hunterian targaid boss.jpg](files/hunterian_targaid_boss_152.jpg)
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![MacKay targe iron grip.jpg](files/mackay_targe_iron_grip_148.jpg)
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![Hunterian targaid back 2.jpg](files/hunterian_targaid_back_2_114.jpg)
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![Hunterian targaid back.jpg](files/hunterian_targaid_back_125.jpg)
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![Hunterian targaid back 3.jpg](files/hunterian_targaid_back_3_991.jpg)
Henrik Bjoern Boegh wrote: |
Martin, I'm led to believe that also the Reivers did use targes from time to time...
Mac, Thanks for the pics. That targe is lovely! Cheers, Henrik |
GG Osborne wrote: |
Merv, if you can get a copy of Drummond's Ancient Scottish Weapons, there is a large section which shows some very early circular shields straight through to the classic targe of 1745. One or two illustrations clearly show burial recoveries that indicate Norse or Northern European influence. Take a look. The book is available from Unicorn Press on a CD. |
Merv Cannon wrote: |
Just found this on e-Bay........"Pre-Jacobite Targaid" !! .... I dont think so ! Still. assming its a copy, Ive seen worse.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Pre-Culloden-Scot...dZViewItem |
Lin Robinson wrote: |
There is a description of a "bullet proof" targe that was set down by Alexander Fletcher of Saltoun in 1716. It is too lengthy to post here, Briefly, the targe supposedly had a thin steel plate on the inside, which was covered with a deer skin with the hair on. Next came a layer of wool which was "stuffed in very hard" to quote Fletcher. On top of the wool was what Fletcher described as cork, but later calls an "excrescence of their Birk trees". What he was actually talking about I do not have a clue, but it was wood of some sort. Finally came the leather cover, decorative tacks, plates, etc. that are commonly seen on targes. He does say that the steel plate was not very heavy. Too much weight and the targe becomes useless. He also mentions the spike and says it "wounds the Enemy when they are close". Fletcher was a Lowlander and may not have understood the use of the targe in combat.
In 1988 I met a gentleman who had built a targe using the description written by Fletcher. He had fired two musket balls at the targe at a range of 50 yards. Neither penetrated completely but one did push almost through the inside layer. However, when I picked the thing up, it was so heavy that I think it would have been nearly impossible to use it as a shiedl in action. I cannot speak to the plains Indians' ability to bullet proof a shield except to say that regularly used variious forms of "magic' to become bullet proof and it never worked as far as I know. The great Cheyene chief, Roman Nose, was supposed to be impervious to bullets as long as he did not eat food lifted from the fire with an iron utensil. Unfortunately, just before the battle of Beecher's Island, he ate some fry bread that had been touched by iron and was killed in the battle. That has absolutely nothing to do with bullet proofing a shield, it just came to mind. |
Martin Wilkinson wrote: |
Claymore does not refer to the two handed swords, it means basket-hilted broadsword.
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Chad Arnow wrote: | ||
Not so. Claymore is a bastardized spelling of the Gaelic words for "Great Sword." The application of that term to basket hilts is the misnomer (even though it's an old and entrenched misnomer). |
Martin Wilkinson wrote: |
Chad, go read SPADA 2. |
Claude Blair wrote: |
The characteristic Highland Scottish two-hand sword, the true claymore* (Gaelic claidheamh mor = great sword), used in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This had long, straight quillons that sloped up at an angle and which usually terminated in pierced quatrefoils... The seventeenth-century version of the true claymore had an arched cross with, in the centre, a large solid shell to protect the hands. *It is worth remarking that the term claymore was being used in England to denote the characteristic Scottish basket hilted broad sword as early as the eighteenth century. |
George Cameron Stone wrote: |
Claymore-Originally the Scotch two-handed sword of the 15th and 16th centuries. The claidheamh-mor or claidmhichean-mhora. It had a long, heavy blade with a straigtht grip with a small pommel and straight quillons slanting towards the blade. Usually the ends of the quillons have pierced ornaments of three or four circles. The name is usually used for the later Scotch broadsword... |
Tarrasuk and Blair wrote: |
Claymore-a name derived from the Gaelic claidheamoh-mor, meaning "great sword". It was first used to describe the large cross-hilted broadsword used in the Scottish highlands and by Scottish mercenaries in Ireland from the late 15th to the early 17th century... Several Scottish literary references indicate that the term "claymore" was applied by Gaelic speakers in the Highlands to both the old-fashioned two-handed sword and the characteristic Scottish basket-hilted sword of the early 18th century. |
Gerald Weland wrote: |
...the claymore was the two-handed sword of anceint Scotland, and its name derives from the Gaelic claidheamh mor, which means great sword. Although it became widespread in the 15th and 16th centuries, its forerunners existed several centuries before then... Claymores are frequently confused with a type of Venetian weapon known as the schiavona, a name originating from the word schiavoni (hired soldier). From the 17th century, Scottish weapons tended to be based on the Italian sword, although there is, in reality, little resemblance between the two and the newer versions were never as efficient in their purpose as the original claymore. |
Terence Wise wrote: |
Claymore-Scottish two-handed sword of the 15th to 16th centuries, now generally accepted to include the Scottish basket-hilted broadsword. |
Paul Martin wrote: |
...let us mention the long two-handed sword, with its simple quillons, used by the Scot men-at-arms: the claymore, which was still in use in the 16th century. This must not be confused with the broadsword, that double edged weapon of the 17th and 18th centuries, whose guard is formed by a basket of open ironwork, enclosing the entire grip. |
Frederick Wilkinson wrote: |
Another great sword which was in use during the 16th and early 17th Century was the claymore, the Gaelic great sword- claidheamh-mor - popular in the Scottish Highlands... The term claymore strictly applies only to these swords; but the name had been given to another type of weapon which, more correctly, should be known as the basket-hilted broadsword. However, this type has been known as the claymore since the 18th Century and the term is now firmly established in general usage. |