[Phill Lappin]

Hi

I'm about to buy a hauberk but as I'm going for a 1250-1300 style kit I wanted full sleeves into mittens. However at the moment I can only buy full fingered mail gloves:
I'm not sure of their historically accurate period, or if they're accurate at all.

Any help or suggestions?

EDIT: I've just found this referencehttp://www.thirteenthcentury.com/pages/clothing09.html to them from 1300, however it doesn't site any sources, and everything else I've seen has mail mittens and then jumps to hourglass gauntlets.

[Thomas O'Neal]

Phill,

I'm facing a similar issue making a hauberk for an 1187 persona. I've decided to tailor a premade riveted hauberk with loose rings from Forth Armoury. If shipping to Australia isn't terrible, you may want to consider this option. Riveting is pretty easy, and can even be fun.

http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/...pplies.htm

This has the added benefit of giving you the tools to tailor your hauberk to your own body. Plus, you know the mittens will fit perfectly, since you will make them for your own hands.

[Phill Lappin]

Thanks Thomas

The hauberk I'm getting is butted so I had already thought of getting loose rings and tailoring it, which is what I'll do either way to make sure it fits perfectly. It's just that I had the option of buying full fingered gloves pre-made and I'm lazy. Also I thought they may provide better articulation than mittens however I was worried about having rings on the underside of the glove, leather seems much better option to me.

[James Barker]

Only fingered gloves I know of are from the 16th c on for rapier fighters. Evidence points to mittens with the leather palm with a split to let your hand out for the 1250-1300 era.


Even the mentioned maille rapier gloves were not full fingers they were strips of maille sewn to a linen or leather glove like so:

From the Royal Armory at Leeds:

[Dan Howard]

Try holding a weapon while wearing gloves made entirely of mail and you'll soon find out why they never existed historically.

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

Fingered mail "mufflers" or even separate mail "gloves" (gauntlets) could be fine for a late 13th or early 14th century harness. There are a few period depictions that show separate finger stalls in the mufflers of late 13th or early 14th century hauberks, or perhaps separate mail gauntlets. They definitely occurred earlier than the 16th century. I'll have to do some digging around for references. I would probably be more appropriate for 1300 than for 1250, however, and not really proper for an 1187 kit.

(By the way, I think it would be rather easy to attach a separate glove to the ends of the sleeves of a hauberk.)

More later!

Stay safe!

P.S. Dan's absolutely right about "full mail gloves" - they must be attached to a leather or cloth glove with the palm left free of links, or you will not be able to hold a weapon! Mail gloves are made in a similar fashion to mail mufflers- with material at the palms and underside of the fingers.

[Richard Fay]

Hello again!

I've found some of the period depictions of fingered "mufflers", or fingered mail gauntlets, or separate mail mittens. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I'll list the examples with some sources. Some are later than 1300, but much earlier than the 16th century. Such things became somewhat common during the early 14th century. They do show a sort of evolution from the mail muffler to the hourglass gauntlet of the later 14th century.

-A relief from the tomb of Gugiemo Beradi, c. 1289, in the Church of Santa Annunziata in Florence. The mounted knight has fingered mail mittens on the sleeves of his hauberk. David Nicolle interprets them as being a part of the hauberk, but the strap around the wrist may represent the edge of a separate mail glove. Period art is always open to varying interpretation. (photo in Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight by David Edge and John Miles Paddock, and a drawing in Arms & Armour of the Crusading Era 1050-1350 Western Europe and the Crusader States by David Nicolle)

-Foot soldiers from the sculpture depicting "Guardians of the Holy Sepulchre" in Strasbourg Cathedral, Musee de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame, c. 1345. A few of the warriors wear either fingered mail gauntlets or fingered "mufflers" at the cuffs of their hauberks. At least one warrior has shield-shaped plates on the back of the hand, but mail only over the fingers. Nicolle interprets one figure as having fingered gloves as an integral part of the hauberk, and another (the one with the plate on the back of the hand) as having separate fingered mail gauntlets. (photos in Arms and Armour from the 9th to the 17th Century by Paul Martin and drawings in Nicolle's Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era)

-Mounted warriors from a northern Italian manuscript dating from 1291-95, Conquest of Outremer (Cod. Fr. 2631, f. 21v. Bib. Nat., Paris). The mounted warriors have separate mail mittens (no separate finger stalls). The cuffs of the gauntlets are clearly separate from the sleeves of the hauberks. (photo in Nicolle's Italian Medieval Armies 1000-1300)

-Warrior from a sculpture "Sleeping Guardians of the Holy Sepulchre" in St. Nicholas Church in Haguenau, c. 1350-1355. Again, this warrior wears mail gloves or fingered mufflers with a small plate on the back of the hand. He additionally wears some sort of "splinted" band around his wrist, possibly of small strips of thick leather. (The armoured "wrist band" appears rather thick, thicker than iron or steel). (photo in Martin's Arms and Armour, drawing in Nicolle's Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era)

-German knightly effigy from Kirchzarten Church, c. 1358. The knight wears mail gloves, with separate finger stalls. The short cuff is clearly separate from the shortened mail sleeves of his haubergeon. (photo in Nicolle's Crecy 1346: Triumph of the Longbow)

-Warriors on the top of an allegorical tower, Speculum Theologiae, French early 14th century. Some of the warriors may have separate finger stalls in their mail mufflers, since the fingers are separated by lines, but it's far from clear. However, it is possible that the artists meant to represent fingered mufflers. (photo in Nicolle's French Medieval Armies 1000-1300)

-A warrior from the Codex Hardenbergianus, Denmark, early 14th century. The warrior wears a separate mail mitten, probably akin to the mail "mufflers' worn earlier. The cuff is clearly separate. (photo in Medieval Scandinavian Armies (2) 1300-1500 by David Lindholm and David Nicolle)

-several warriors in the Manesse Codex wear separate mail mittens, of the non-fingered "muffler" type, but clearly separate from the hauberks.

I'll look up more in a bit. I know I added examples without separate fingers as well as those with separate fingers, but I thought separate mail mittens might also be of interest. I also know most are later than the time period 1250-1300, but all are clearly earlier than the 16th century. I think I can find a few earlier examples, but I must do a bit more digging.

More to come!

Stay safe!

[Richard Fay]

Hello again!

Before I search for more examples of separate mail gauntlets or fingered mufflers, I thought I would present some citations from a few works on medieval armour regarding the development of fingered "mufflers" or separate gauntlets. this is what Claude Blair said in European Armour Circa 1066 to Circa 1700 about mufflers with separate fingers:

[Dan Dickinson]

The Maciejowski Bible has a small number of representations of fingered versions of the much more common maille mufflers. They certainly are heavily in the minority, but as the Maciejowski Bible is commonly dated to 1250 you definately have evidence at least that far back. Nevertheless, I second what the others have been saying. Make sure that you have leather palms and not maille.
Hope this helps,
Dan

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!