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Michael Ekelmann
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 Posted: Sat 01 Nov, 2014 11:39 am Post subject: |
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Two things for me really. Cost and soft kit. I love the look of Gothic armour. If I was ever to get a full harness of plate, it would be Gothic. But good Gothic armour is well out of my budget. Secondly, while I love the armour, I don't share the same fondness for men's clothing of the era. Before and after, I can find clothing I like, appropriate to the station of a person who would be in fitted cap-a-pie armour, but during the heyday of Gothic plate, not so much.
“Men prefer to fight with swords, so they can see each other's eyes!" Sean Connery as Mulay Hamid El Raisuli in The Wind and the Lion
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Mark Griffin
Location: The Welsh Marches, in the hills above Newtown, Powys. Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 802
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| Posted: Sat 01 Nov, 2014 12:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Looking at one of the reproductions of the Sigismund armor I noticed that there is a short strap at the side of the cuisses (upper leg armor) attached to the faulds. It's not laced at the front like Italian and English armor but at the side with a leather strap. |
But as you say, a reproduction. So pretty useless as a primary resource for research purposes. unless you could contact the maker and ask why they did that, they might well have knowledge of something that led them to do that.
Currently working on projects ranging from Elizabethan pageants to a WW1 Tank, Victorian fairgrounds 1066 events and more. Oh and we joust loads!.. We run over 250 events for English Heritage each year plus many others for Historic Royal Palaces, Historic Scotland, the National Trust and more. If you live in the UK and are interested in working for us just drop us a line with a cv.
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Pieter B.
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| Posted: Sun 02 Nov, 2014 5:25 am Post subject: |
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| Mark Griffin wrote: | | Quote: | | Looking at one of the reproductions of the Sigismund armor I noticed that there is a short strap at the side of the cuisses (upper leg armor) attached to the faulds. It's not laced at the front like Italian and English armor but at the side with a leather strap. |
But as you say, a reproduction. So pretty useless as a primary resource for research purposes. unless you could contact the maker and ask why they did that, they might well have knowledge of something that led them to do that. |
That is indeed correct.
However looking at the armor closely again it would make the most sense to use the sides since that is where the armor reaches up the highest and wouldn't show five inches of straps running from the thigh to the faulds. I shall look into this further.
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James Arlen Gillaspie
Industry Professional
Location: upstate NY Joined: 10 Nov 2005
Posts: 587
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| Posted: Thu 06 Nov, 2014 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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I have an awful lot to say about the subject - but I have a sword to fix. For most of the 15th c., it seems that (the surviving) German armour was made of highly refined wrought iron, but no steel (so far), so corrugating the stuff was a good way to make it more rigid. I have a saying that, until the German smiths were making tempered steel armour, smart Germans wore Italian. Italian armour is just about NEVER done right, because the information to make it properly is not available, and smiths have not been able to properly interpret the photographic evidence they usually work from. I have handled more than most of both styles, and I will say flat-out that while I prefer the 'gothic' style for its visual impact, the Italian stuff is built on a better understanding of ergonomics. To quote one of the major Scandinavian sword makers (ran into him in John Waller's office at the Royal Armouries, and forgot his name!  ), 'Italian armour is subtle'. Amen. By contrast, German 15th c. armour can be downright bizarre, and the approach seems often to be that if you use enough lames with sliding rivets, you will eventually get an acceptable range of motion. By contrast, the classic mid 15th c. Italian heavy cavalry harness is a marvel of ergonomic sophistication combined with simplicity of design resulting in increased production speed. They know how to do more with fewer lames. An unadorned 'gothic' armour is much easier for the modern smith to make work properly than an Italian heavy cavalry armour.
jamesarlen.com
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