Hello, I am hoping to pick your collective brains for a moment. I am looking for pictures of the period use of adding a small chainmaille ‘fringe’ to the bottom of the demi-greave of a leg harness. I know that I have seen it before but for the life of me I can’t remember what book I saw it in. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. If you wish you can respond on this thread or e-mail me at lonewolfchainmaille(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Thanks again,
Joe

You will have more luck looking for Middle Eastern and Indian sources rather than European. It was more common in those regions.

i believe its also an italian thing.

did you ask this question on the armour archive?

if not someone did. i'll pass the pictures on here for others

http://josh.mediumaevum.com/74b.JPG

http://josh.mediumaevum.com/149a.bmp

Yes Chuck that was me :).

Through the kind effort of a lot of people I know it was mostly done in Italy. Was there any common pattern? Straight? Dagged? Also does anyone know how they were typically attached? Was the maill rivetted directly to the demigreave? Or was it sewn to leather and the leather attached to the demigreave?

It seems that the more I learn the more questions I find.

Thank you to everyone for their kind assistance,
Joe

Joe;

In the paintings of the period, it looks as though both straight and dagged edges were popular for the fringe. I can't say which was more popular in any given decade or province, though. It could well have been one of those fashion things that depended on just where and when the piece was made and worn (though obviously it was 15th Century Italian, but narrower than that I can't hazard a guess).

As far as the attachements to the polyens (or top of the greave, for that matter), I don't know, but I would suspect that the info is out there, just hard to ferret out. But I'm certain that it is NOT from a full mail cuisse that is worn under the plate one! :D So it's entirely possible that any or all of the above suggestions are proper.

Whatever the case, it's pretty darned cool that you're going to the trouble of including that little detail, AND getting it right. One of those "little things" that separate a great impression from a merely very good one. It's that last 10% that's hard!

Allons!

Gordon

Well I can't claim to much of the kudos, the project is for a client of mine :). I was similarly impressed when she contacted me for the commision. Not many people pay attention to the little bits that add that truly finished look to a harness and I get to make most of them for her.

From the pictures I've seen the 'fringe' seems to follow the contour of the bottom of the leg harness unless the fringe is dagged. At least most of the time, it looks like it was probably up to the personal taste of the persion commisioning the armour.

But I could always be wrong :).