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Dominic P.
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 Posted: Sun 24 Jun, 2012 2:54 am Post subject: Why are these objects so well known/famous? |
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Three objects which seem to be mentioned again and again both on this forum and in the books i have read are the Pembridge Helm, the Witham Sword in the British Museum and the Thorpe Falchion. My question is , why are these three object so well know/famous?.
When to give an and example there seem to be at least two Great Helms on this very site, one of which seems to still be painted and the other seems to be around about a hundred years older that the Pembridge helm. Yet neither of them seems to be nearly as often referenced.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post, any response is greatly appreciated.
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Scott Woodruff
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| Posted: Sun 24 Jun, 2012 9:13 am Post subject: |
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Interesting question. By "Witham sword" I take it you mean the double-fullered type X with the fancy blade inscriptions? There is more than one sword that has come out of the river Witham isn't there? Anyways, the Witham sword is completely unique and a particularly spectacular example of the medieval swordsmiths and cutlers art, so its relative fame is no surprise. The Thorpe falchions claim to fame seems to me to simply be that it is a very well preserved example of a very important type that is quite rarely preserved. Which helm is 100 years older than the Pembridge? I don't know much about great helms, but I was unaware of any survivng examples earlier than 1300, so an actual 13th century great helm sounds quite interesting.
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Iagoba Ferreira
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| Posted: Mon 25 Jun, 2012 2:40 am Post subject: |
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I'll add the Italian armour shown in Glasgow... This week I've found a paperdoll based in it  avalaible here
Are those pieces exceptional, representative or just very published, and known, and due to this, even more used and known?
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Dominic P.
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| Posted: Mon 02 Jul, 2012 10:06 am Post subject: |
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Hi sorry that i have taken so long to reply. Yes I was referring to the type X, I find it very interesting that you say that it's unique. Unique in what way though? As for the 13th century Great Helm, I believe that there is a photograph of it on the MyAmoury's Great Helms page. It is described as being from 'Schlossberg bei Dargen, Pomerania, Germany'.
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Scott Woodruff
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| Posted: Mon 02 Jul, 2012 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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The "Witham sword" is almost unique in the combination of having both double fullers AND one of the nicest inscriptions.
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Chad Arnow
myArmoury Team
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| Posted: Mon 02 Jul, 2012 7:07 pm Post subject: Re: Why are these objects so well known/famous? |
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| Dominic P. wrote: | | Three objects which seem to be mentioned again and again both on this forum and in the books i have read are the Pembridge Helm, the Witham Sword in the British Museum and the Thorpe Falchion. My question is , why are these three object so well know/famous?. |
They're famous at least partially because they are in pretty easily accessible museums and have been published a lot. The fact that they are in museums in the home island of the English language means that books/articles on them are perhaps more widely distributed than for items published in other languages.
A quick glance at most classic works on arms and armour show a lot of English authors: Oakeshott, Mann, Capwell, Edge/Paddock, Blair, etc. They tended to discuss items they have/had easy access to and ones with generous allowances for photo reproduction.
So language and geography have combined with unique and/or classic characteristics worth publishing.
I have arms and armour books in Italian and German, and they, not surprisingly, focus more on their local examples. Of the Italian books I have, some weapons and armour show up with a frequency similar to the items you cited.
ChadA
http://chadarnow.com/
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This is a standard topic