[Jeff Cierniak]

Happy Weekend, All!

I'm starting to consider putting together my own harness. Like...perhaps in a decade. I'm 36, so I figure I could get at least a few good fighting years out of it and just fun living history after that.

I know it's not a common area to go after, but because of my Polish heritage I would love to attempt putting together a 14th or early 15th century harness appropriate to that area. I am familiar with (the fantastic) Acta Militaria journal recommended by members on this forum, but I have been trying to use the effigies and brasses site as a reference as well. However, much of the time their torso is covered by cloth, and usually helmets don't appear.

Any help with: A) identifying pieces in these effigies more accurately, or B) Other sources for this type of information would be extremely useful. Here are some examples:

http://effigiesandbrasses.com/842/1135/
http://effigiesandbrasses.com/815/1120/
http://effigiesandbrasses.com/756/1041/
http://effigiesandbrasses.com/814/1119/
http://effigiesandbrasses.com/820/1125/
http://effigiesandbrasses.com/1085/19870/

[Jeff Cierniak]

I'm guessing that most of these are a coat of plates of some kind but covered with another layer of cloth. A couple examples may even by the "Visby" type, given the retention chains, but others appear to be the "globos" style coat of plates/ Corazzina.

It's hard to see specifics on some of the limbs, I'm guessing most of the pieces are floating rather than articulated? Hard to see if there's any kind of pauldron/spalder or anything too. Darn capes!

[Michael P. Smith]

Lots of Silesian examples there. My mother's family originated from there, though of German ethnicity rather than Polish. I'd like to visit it some day.

[Jeff Cierniak]

Heeeey I originally come from Northern Indiana as well!

I've decided to go with Italian armor from late 14th century instead, because I mostly study Fiore. However, that choice was partially made because once you get out of the retention chains era, it's pretty similar with close fitting jupons/armor tunics and whatnot. It seems like they were just a few years (up to a decade or so?) behind what central Europe was doing with armor, and even then not in all cases.