The Massive Museum Picture Request post. -- myArmoury.com

B. Fulton

Starting Sunday I will be traveling to England, Ireland and France for 3 weeks, and hitting up essentially every major museum, castle, and significant pile of dirt in large portions of those countries. I am an armor and weaponry man, an SCA member and former history major, ex-professional photographer (video, not still) and have been getting good closeups of all kinds of armor and weaponry from European museums for several years.

If you have ANY reasonable request of a piece of anything, from ANY time period (Stone Age to modern day) of something you want/need/desire good pics of from the museums listed, post it here immediately and I will do my best to fulfill it. Please be specific, I will be spending about six hours per museum in the larger ones and "anything 14th century" is vague, I'll be shooting the whole place. If you have a particular period of history and weapon type you are looking at i.e "Italian 15th century polearms" it will make it easier for me. I am not a master of the Oakeshott typology system so be a little more specific if you can on swords.

Here's the big list:

London Area:
Windsor Castle
Bath (lunch stopover, may not get pics)
National Gallery
Victoria and Albert Musuem
Tower of London
Dover Castle
Royal Armoury, Fort Nelson
Royal Armoury, Leeds
HMS Belfast

Yes, I'm aware Leeds and Fort Nelson are not in London, we'll be daytripping the fort and traveling to Leeds on our way to York.

York:
Yorkshire Musuem
Yorkshire Castle Museum
Jorvik Viking settlement

Dublin, Ireland:
Kilkenny Castle
Rothe House
Rock of Cashel
Malahide Castle
Trinity College
Dublin Castle
National Gallery (both the armor/weaponry/medieval one, and the garb/textiles one)
Rathfarnham
We'll also be going to the Beatty Library.

Paris:
The Louvre
Musee de l'Armee
Musee Cluny
Versailles

Bayeux: The Bayeux Tapestry

Normandy:
Batteries of Longues sur mer
Omaha Beach and cemetery at Colleville
Pointe du Hoc
Carentan
Angoville au Plain
Drop Zone D
Sainte Mere Eglise & Museum
Beuzeville au Plain (C-47 crash site)
Marmion's Farm
Utah Beach
Brecourt Manor

I am a modern weaponry specialist, i.e firearms after 1700 or so, specifically in the post 1870s-current especially so if there's anything in that range you wish to see for example at the Musee de l' Armee, I'll do my best too.

D. Austin · Industry Professional

Wow. Sounds like a lot of fun. I'm jealous.

Personally, I'm quite interested in seeing pictures of ballock daggers from the side. There are plenty of pictures available taken from the front however it's hard to get a good idea of the thickness of blades and grip shape from viewing them from only one angle. 15th century examples would be great but I'm not too fussy.

Also, I have no idea how rare they are and whether or not you might come across them in your travels but I'd love to see some close ups of eared daggers, especially the pommel area.

Good luck on your mission. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Jeremy V. Krause · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 2:18 pm Post subject:

Hello B. Fulton,

This sounds like a great trip! Thanks for offerring your time for our benefit.

I would be interested in seeing some pictures at different angles of the Honey Lane broken back seax located in the royal armoury at Leeds (I think). This seax has a simple copper/brass inlay of lines running parallel to the blade. If you could get a shot of the back of this blade that would be very very cool as I do not know what is on the other side. I would be interested in getting an idea of the thickness of this blade.

Otherwise I am interested in seaxes of all types- especially later examples (900-1100). I would also love to see any sword dated (1000-1200) especially brazil nut and tea cozy pommels. This may sound like a great span of time but historical examples are much more rare. If you can get a nice shot of the inlay/inscription on such blades. Late niking swords are also very appealing to me.

Weapons from the high middle ages are usually some of the more exclusive items in museums so documentation of these is important. 16-17th c. pole arms on the other hand are a dime a dozen in european museums!

Maybe get a shot of Xa.1 in Records- from the front and from the side- it's in the tower of London- I think.
Thanks again,
Jeremy

S. Christiansen · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject:

Well, anything of the Viking age would be interesting, but I'm going to limit it to swords (particularly of the late Viking age), spearheads (preferably winged spearheads) and two-handed axeheads. Oh, and thanks for the opportunity. Happy

B. Fulton · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject:

Will do. Do you have a pic of an eared dagger or an illustration? Can't think of what they look like.

I will be emailing some of the musuems for some of this stuff too.

Dan Dickinson · Industry Professional

Wow, it's like a Christmas wish list Wink

I would second the request for multiple angles on swords and saxes..often the front angles have been published, but the side and top etc. angles haven't.
As far as specific examples go I would like to see......

(British Museum) The sword found in the river witham that has a double fuller....(I think it's X.14 in Records off the top of my head)....this is the one that I would really like as many angles as possible (The glass was very hard to shoot through....so good luck)
Any viking swords, and especially the sword and helmet from Sutton Hoo.

(National Museum of Ireland) Good luck with this one as they don't allow photos......but if you somehow happen to.......the Ballinderry sword (from as many angles as possible....especially the side......any other viking swords (especially the Type H pommeled ones ....they're triangular).......and the medieval hilt fragment that closely matches Albion's Museum Line solingen.

Finally, if you go to the Musee de l'Armee.....
If you could shoot closeups of the display of medieval swords that contains the massively broad bladed type X with a silver grip and the spherical pommeled one beside it (If you could get as many angles as possible on these I would appreciate it.)......the viking swords below them....and the spherical gold-plated sword and the falchion with the edge on the "wrong" side beside it in another display.....(once again from as many angles as possible).

Thank you very much....I greatly appreciate it..
Dan

Aaron Schneiker · Posted: Thu 20 Mar, 2008 7:13 am Post subject:

Wow, what a generous offer! I don't know if what I am looking for is in any of these museums, but if you happen to run across any european mail dated from around 1170-1250 I would love some detailed shots. A general overview of the piece, then a few as close up as you can get to the rivet area of an individual ring or three. Front and back if possible.

Thanks for the offer and have a great trip!

Sean Flynt · Posted: Thu 20 Mar, 2008 7:41 am Post subject:

Did you mean to leave out the Museum of London and Wallace Collection? The WC is one of the world's best, and now allows photography. The MOL has some very interesting arms, ranging from bronze age through 18th c. MOL also allows photography. If you have to pick only one of these, don't miss the WC. The RA, Leeds will cover what you'd miss at MOL.

And be sure to email the V&A to check the status of their collection--it has been closed for years and was closed when I inquired last year. In fact, be sure to check with all the museums you want to visit, as A&A sometimes get short-shrift in exhibition space. At the time of my inquiry, the V&A had no room to display its arms and armour but had plenty of space for a Kylie Minogue retrospective.

Jeroen Zuiderwijk · Industry Professional

Peter Bosman · Posted: Thu 20 Mar, 2008 11:25 am Post subject:

William Atkin · Posted: Thu 20 Mar, 2008 2:01 pm Post subject:

Gday. I wish I was going. It would be great should you find items (broadswords, backswords, daggers, targes, dirkes) used by scottish highlanders in the risings of 1715 and 1745. Later versions rom the regiments and Victorian era are no use to me. I am currently putting together a set pertaining to McDonalda, McKenzies and McIans from the period. It will be highly likely you will come across gear taken as prizes or contemporaneous paintings. The most important would be the gear relating to McIan of Glencoe (NOT McIan of Ardnamurchan) from 1692. cheers and thanks for the offer Bill

B. Fulton · Posted: Thu 20 Mar, 2008 3:16 pm Post subject:

We will be hitting the V&A for clothing and textiles primarily.

I was under the impression the Wallace collection was in Scotland...... apparently not. Might have to cram an extra museum in there. My wife planned the majority of the trip and hadn't heard of it, I knew of it, I just got the country wrong.

I'll be collating all these into one or two pages to bring with me. I have a good idea what a khopesh looks like but post a pic if you can just to make sure.

Nathan Robinson · myArmoury Admin

Kelly Powell · Posted: Thu 20 Mar, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject:

Bronze and iron age mace heads...The ones i have seen look almost like walking stick heads...relatively small and were for more staff like weapons then the larger maces of medieval period....

Lafayette C Curtis · Posted: Fri 21 Mar, 2008 5:14 am Post subject:

16th- and 17th- century armors, especially ones made of leather? (I'm still dead curious about the tales of hardened leather painted black/brown to imitate steel armor.)

Tim May · Posted: Fri 21 Mar, 2008 5:23 am Post subject:

B. Fulton · Posted: Fri 21 Mar, 2008 9:40 am Post subject:

I'll do the best I can.

A guy on another forum has friends who can get "out of the case" availability for pics, however..... at this short of time and with this many pieces, it's highly unlikely. As he said, they can't pull half their collection for someone's "wish list". I'll do the best I can.

Sam Haverkamp · Industry Professional

If you get the chance, I have a small mission. It would be a great Help if you can confirm if the backplate of this Negroli Cuirass is missing from the Louvre. I am working on a reproduction of this famous Armour and will be producing the backplate as well. It is rumored that it went missing some time ago.
Thanks Very Much!
Sam

B. Fulton · Posted: Fri 21 Mar, 2008 11:41 pm Post subject:

Duly noted. Spending most of a day there, i'll slap a French guide upside the head and make him show me.

Hisham Gaballa · Posted: Sat 22 Mar, 2008 7:55 am Post subject:

If you are going to the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, then I would love to see some high resolution pictures of some their collection of Turkish armour, in particular the helmet of Sultan Barsbay and the equestrian figure of a fully armoured warrior and armoured horse. Manouchehr very kindly photographed these a while back, however because he was concentrating on getting as many photos of as many items as possible, those photos are relatively small and blurred.

Thanks.

These are the items I mean from Manouchehr's thread, they are about halfway down their pages:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...p;start=40
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...;start=140
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...;start=120