[Merv Cannon]

Richard Fay posted an interresting reply picture to Chad's request for Dagger info. which I have attached. It appears to me that ths knight (von Haberkorn) is waring a Scale Skirt rather than the usual maille one ......I can't imagine that its the protruding bottom of a whole Hauberk made of scale. The full lenfth image is posted in Chad's dagger post. I'm not saying that it IS a scale skirt.......but just that it looks like one to me. I have come across many wierd and wonderful armour pieces in effergies and I am sure they had experimentation with what worked best for each knight. Mabye they are protective/decorative discs riveted over the gambeson ? I've seen similar discs inside a maille collar made up of small shields facing alternately up and down.
I would appreciate your input and comments.

[Allan Senefelder]

Merv, the cover art for " Medieval Craftsman, Armourers " by Mathias Pfaffenbicher is a late 15th century painting entitled "Armourers At Work" which has sitting off to the right by the forge a pair of breast and back plates with a scale skirt instead of faulds. I know i've seen another illustration with the same thing somewhere that escapes me just at the moment.

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

[Hugh Knight]

What we don't know is whether these scale faulds are actually attached to the breastplates in question. There are a number of pictures that show the faulds being worn by themselves, as in the ones worn over quilted Lentners (or jupons, or whatever party you belong to when it comes to naming these garments) in the picture below.

[Richard Fay]

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

I found more period images of possible scale skirts. It does seem to be an option for use in place of a laminated fauld. I couldn't find most of these images on-line, so you'll have to bear with my descriptions.

There are a few of these shown in illuminations from various manuscripts in Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts by Pamela Porter. All images are from the British Library, but many seem to be absent from their on-line image library.

There are a variety of configurations shown. One image, from King's MS 5, fol. 7, circa 1405, shows gilded rectangular scales, complete with rivets, shown worn beneath some sort of garment. One row of these scales shows from beneath the hem of the upper garment.

Another image from the same book, this time from Cotton MS Nero E ii, part 1, folio 124, circa 1415, shows a warrior with a scale skirt of rectangular scales worn beneath a jupon split up the side. The scales are visible at the split. They are coloured the same as the rest of the knight's plate armour. This time, a mail skirt or the skirt of a mail haubergeon is visible at the hem of the skirt of scales. This figure is otherwise in fairly conventional western armour, including a belt with dangling bells that was especially popular in Germany (such a belt is shown on the effigy of Ludwig of Hutten from about the same date).

Another possible scale skirt is shown worn by a knight from the early fifteenth century manuscript, Harley MS 4431, folio 135. This time it could be a laminated fauld, but there are occasional lines within the lames suggesting that they weren't solid lames, but something like large scales. This is one interpretation anyway. (See image below.)

There is also an interesting example that may be a scale skirt depicted on the Angers tapestry made between 1375 and 1390. In the scene of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, one of the horsemen wears some sort of scale garment beneath a mail haubergeon. One row of scales can be seen clearly beneath the hem of the mail shirt, and another is partially visible. Each scale has a rivet in its centre. In French Armies of the Hundred Years War, David Nicolle states that the scale garment is a brigandine cuirass. However, it just may be a skirt of scales. It could be an alternate possibility, anyway.

The problem with interpreting period art is that it's sometimes hard to know what is real and what is fanciful. Perhaps many of these scale skirts, or possible scale skirts, are fanciful. However, since similar armour was used in Central Europe, these other examples may depict an actual armour.

Stay safe!