I found a picture of an armour from the Higgins in the internet. Does anybody know if this armour belongs together and from which area and time the parts come from?

The bascinet feature says the bascinet is German, but doesn´t give a date.

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[quote="Chad Arnow"]

Felix R. wrote:

It's a composite harness (made up of parts from different places). The Higgings catalogue from the 1960s calls the whole thing, "Armor, German, 1430."

I could be wrong but the armour or at least parts of it looks a bit earlier than 1430 ? 1430 is plausible if a Knight of that date had somewhat old or out of fashion armour.

My best guess would have been 1370 to 1400 at least from a general impression of numerous reference books.

I think Jean has it about right but it looks like a complete mish mash! looks like later munition armour parts have been thrown into the pot also.

Lawrence

Lawrence,

You're dead right on that one. I think the RA has a set of arms like those dated 1515 or so.

I have not seen any info on this suit before. I will look around a bit. I have a friend who has worked there.

RPM

Thanks for the input, I already assumed that this is a "compilation" of different armour styles. Perhaps one can call this "armour through the ages"!

Hello all,

To my knowledge, that armour was assembled from various parts by Mr. Higgins himself. And yes, it's obviously drawn from pieces that don't belong together.

The harness is no longer on display, and hasn't been in the 15 years or so that I've been visiting the museum. I think the bascinet is displayed separately now, but certainly the harness as a whole has been de-accensioned.

All the best,

Christian

The arms were discussed here: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=8975 . They probably date from the early 16th century according to folks in that thread.

Felix,

The breastplate appears in Hefner-Alteneck, where it is described, erroneously, as 1390-1430. It's general shape, and the presence of a pair of "mystery holes" at the neck, suggests to me a date of 1490-1510. The skimpy little mail fauld ,is probably a spurious association.

The legs are probably mid to late fifteenth century Italian.. I don't have my copy of the catalog here at the shop, but I think I recall that much or all of one of the legs is known to be a repro.

There are some interesting parts in the assemblage, but on the whole, it's what the late Chip Karcheski would call "a dog's breakfast".

Mac