LOT 0292

Maximilian Articulated Steel Plate Armour Tassets

GERMANY, CIRCA EARLY 16TH CENTURY A.D.

8 3/4 - 9 5/8 in. (424 grams total, 22.3-24.5 cm).

Comprising: a curved panel with a rolled rim, horizontal carinated bands and median bowed band with diagonal slash detailing, fluted lower edge with holes for articulating rivets; group of three plates with vertical fluting, with sliding rivets providing articulation; with matching '1.306' reference numbers. [2]

Acquired on the UK art market.
From a gentleman's collection from East Sussex, UK.

Cf. Edge, D. & Paddock, J.M., Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight, London, 1988; Terjanian, P., The Last Knight - The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I, New York, 2019; cf. similar pieces of armour in Lanzardo, D., Il convitato di ferro (the iron guest), in Italian, Torino, 1987, figs.47,48,59.

The matched reference numbers could indicate that the pieces came from the same harness. One piece appears to be a piece of a tasset – a thigh defence. The embossed band is imitating the fashionable ‘puffed and slashed’ textile garments seen on 16th-century armour. Sixteenth-century armour often imitated textile fashions in their form and decorative elements. The second piece may be a tasset. The incised lines for the fluting on the exterior surface appear to be of more mechanical manufacture, as do the slot for the sliding rivet and the empty rivet hole on one side.