[Adam D. Kent-Isaac]

The Greenwich Armourer's Album, otherwise known as An Elizabethan Armourer's Album or simply "The Jacob Album" is a book of 29 armour designs for various gentlemen of Queen Elizabeth's court. Of these armours, I am aware of only 5 that still exist: Cumberland (George Clifford,) Leicester (Robert Dudley,) Worcester (William Somerset), Buckhurst (Thomas Sackville, co-author of Gorboduc,) and James Scudamore, who was Custos Rotulorum of Herefordshire and a popular tilter. Cumberland's and Scudamore's armours are in the Met Museum; the others are, I think, in the Tower of London. Please correct me if there are other armours from this book still extant.

My question is what happened to all the other ones? There are some designs for a lot of very prominent gentlemen in that album, particularly Sir Henry Lee, Elizabeth's jousting champion prior to the assumption of that title by George Clifford; he has two separate garnitures shown in that album. One of them looks truly spectacular and I really wish it were still around:



Were these armours simply lost to the ages, packed away in old attics and never found? Were they eventually melted down and used to make other armour? Were some of them badly damaged in the tournament or in battle and scrapped or something?

Are there magnificent Greenwich armours hidden away in old castles in England, waiting to be found? From what I read on Sir James Scudamore's harness, it was discovered in a chest in the attic of an abandoned tower at Holme Lacey in the early 1900s, covered in rust and nearly ruined by moisture; it was meticulously restored by the armourers at the Metropolitan Museum and now it looks fantastic. Will other discoveries be made in coming years?

[Chad Arnow]

Two of the ones you mentioned can be seen in some of our Feature articles:

http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_16c_armour.html
http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_mow_clifford.html

I want to say the Lee armour survives as well.

[Chad Arnow]

The Royal Armouries has a number of surviving Greenwich harnesses. I don't think all of them are in that book, though.

Also, do you know that all those designs were actually made? Some of those design books may very well have been proposals that never were made into armour. For example, I believe the Clifford armour is slightly different in the sketches in that book than it is in real life.

A helm of one of Sir Henry Lee's harness survives. It's in the Royal Armouries, and is published in Dufty's European Armour from the Tower of London. It differs from the sketch you posted.

[Nathan Robinson]

I just wanted to add this to the topic because I was impressed with it when I saw it in person.

Here is a photo I took of the Almain Album at The Victoria and Albert Museum showing elements form the George Clifford armour located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

[Adam D. Kent-Isaac]