Breast and back plate from Lord Mayor of black pool collection

@the blacksmith

 

Bob-To clarify,do you own this or does this still belong to the city ?

 

I have owned it for approx40 years
It was purchased by a close friend about 1946 and he broke it as well as many other items from the collection to Canada

 

Lol brought

 

Ha ha. I was wondering.

 

Very nice!
Unusually long at the front, most are relatively short, as this enabled sitting on a horse easier and more comfortable.
The leather of course is relatively modern, and the buckle incorrect. The shoulder straps should have had small iron plates rivetted to them, as would probably the rivets holding the waist strap.
Do you have any pictures of the inside please? And also the small mark at the neck? It may be that this is a smaller version of the TE mark at the waist, but a better picture would help. Almost certainly they are not a pair as such, but have been added together at some point, so quite probably they were made by different makers. Perhaps put in some chalk before photographing the mark?? Also a picture of the edge of the metal where the breast and backplate join would help.
Are those marks below the collar on the left hand side of the breastplate?

It looks a very nice pair of plates.
This may be a fairly light breastplate, what would be termed 'sword proof' at the time. Others were pistol proof at least, and other were extremely heavy, which were for seige wear, engineers etc. Pistol proof plates were usually tested with a pistol at extremely close range, done using a double charge, and the resulting dent was proof that the plate had been tested and passed. It would then be stamped with the armourers stamp and probably a guild stamp.
I hope to see more pictures. Thank you for posting these.

 

A cuirass.

 

I’m sorry so many duplicates the close up is dented musket shot trial?
Total wt 14.5 lbs

 

I doubt that is a proof test. These were serious tests, that left a very visible imprint of the ball.



Some are much more obvious than this one, which was probably a pistol ball. I used to have one quite similar to the one shown above some years ago.

Unfortunately, the marks are not clear enough to indicate a maker, at least judging from the pictures so far. And the picture of the edge of the breastplate, what I would like to see is an actual picture of the edge, edge on so to speak. This may tell us something of how the plate was manufactured, simple one piece of iron, or layers of metal, but the lack of a proof mark makes this seem unlikely to me.

 

Happy for You Bob,a bit sad though that the UK dumped so much after the War.I guess England was broke after 5 years of Hitler ?

 

One only has to look back to the Hever Castle sale back in the 1980's.

The asking price for the nation was £13m, but , that included everything in it! The government wouldn't buy it, and the resulting auctions meant that the very fine armours in the top gallery were dispersed all around the globe!
One very fine armour went to an American collector, a member of a very wealthy family, and that armour alone was over £2.5m. A further helmet went to the same buyer for about £1.5m.
One armour belonged to the Earl of Southampton, who was a friend of Shakespeare, and was the only patron that Shakespeare named. The armour, of extreme importance was sold to a foreign buyer. Due to its importance it was the subject of an appeal, for which an export license was refused while funds were raised. Not enough was raised, and a second export license was also denied while a second attempt to raise the funds commenced. Eventually, the original buyer very generously donated the £60.000 difference, and the armour is today thankfully in the Royal Armouries. My personal contributions helped to purchase this armour.........................perhaps one rivet of it!



The Earl of Southampton's armour, probably French, ca. 1600.

The collection also included a few personal itmes that belonged to Anne Boleyn.

Fortunately, Littlecote House in Wiltshire, which is the only manor house of the period of the English Civil Wars to still retain its original armoury, was saved for the nation, but again, this was partly thanks to the generosity of the seller! Many of the items in this collection are unique, and have greatly help our knowledge, understanding and appreciation of armour of the period

 

Sad but it happens in the States too.It is nice when an item can remain in it's 'ancestral home' (town,county,etc) & be appreciated by the ancestors of the people who created the artifact.

 

That was an interesting read. Thank you

 

A famous ballistically-damaged breastplate. At least the soldier didn’t linger at death’s door.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...oleonic-armor-smashed-through-by-a-cannonball