Posts: 323 Location: Telemark, Norway
Tue 29 Apr, 2008 12:17 am
Mail sleeves
Hi folks,
Davids picture shows quite nicely how the sleeves were worn with this , and similar armours. They simply tied at several places to the arming doublet. Full mail shirts were unecessary, the breastplate was adequate protection, and the full shirt was, for many an unecessary expense and of course extra weight too.
The original picture shows what appears to be one of the armours at Graz. There are still 131 sleeves in store there ( there are also 22 full shirts ). According to Dr. Krenn, in 1600 a pair of sleeves cost 10 guilders, whereas a footmans set of plate armour cost only 6.5 guilders ! Probably the footmans armour consisted of
burgonet, gorget with munnions, breast and backplate and probably tassets. Similar to that shown in the picture, but maybe less ornate. This gives some idea of the time and expense of making mail, even for the professionals !
Regards,
Russ