DOI Heft:
Heft 8
DOI Artikel:Clephan, Robert Coltman: The Wallace Collection of Arms and Armour, [3]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.37714#0246
230
Zeitschrift für historische Waffenkunde.
III. Band.
No. 1098 is a similar armour by the same
Augsburg smith.
No. 1119 is illustrated 011 Fig. V.
Number 474.
On the top of the breastplate is a border
of classic figures and animals; the harness, gene-
rally, is banded boldly in strapwork on a gilt
ground. Tliere is an extra plate over the left
breast and shoulder; and another rises from the
thigh to the centre of the breastplate on that side.
The breastplate, of the peasecod type, is flanged
over the right shoulder; and the lance-rest is small
and folds up. This harness is for Freiturnier
(Free Course), in which a large garde-de-bras
(Stechmäusel) was used in place ofthemanteau
d’armes and the pasgarde1) of Welsches
Gestech. The pasgarde is not present, but the
coude is holed for it.
The difference between welsches Gestech and
Freitournier lay in the circumstance that the
latter was run in the open field or lists, without
a tilt between the jousters. Freiturnier, like
Rennen and Stechen, required more skill and
initiative than did welsches Gestech. The lance
and horse furniture were of the same kind in both
cases, and the body armour of the jousters very
similar; but subject to the interchange of reinforcing
pieces. A suit in the Dresden collection, labelled
v. Holtzendorff is for Freiturnier; as also is that
of Karl Schürft von Schonwert (died 1628). Boeheim
gives an illustration of the last named harness in
liis Waffenkunde as being for das neue welsche
Gestech über das Dill, but I believe this is
not so.
By the commencement of the seventeenth Cen-
tury all the older forms of jousting had fallen into
disuse, with the exception of Freiturnier; and a
sort of skirmish, troop against trepp, called Schar-
mützel. Ringelrennen (running at the ring) also
prevailed greatly, but this game cannot be classecl
as belonging to the tourney.
Number 958.
This suit is without any'very special features
be)mnd the fact that each part is stamped in
numbers, a circumstance suggestive of its having
formed one of a series of armours made to the
same pattern, and possibly of the same size.
A contributing cause to the gradual disuse of
armour was the increasing badness of the fit; and
one sometimes reads of Contemporary complaints
made more especially perhaps after the first half
of the sixteenth Century, of the frequency of badly
fitting plates; which caused great sufifering to the
wearers by reason of the chafing into sores. No
i) This is the real pasgarde (Stechmäuschen); the word
is often used as a clesignation for an upriglit neck guarcl, but
erroneously.
wonder that armour was sometimes thrown away
in a campaign in spite of regulations.
I have illustrated this harness here, more
especially, with a view of giving on these pages
as full a representation as space will allow of the
various styles and periods covered by the collection
as a whole. The suit dates probably in the second
quarter of the seventeenth Century; and rows of
brass-headed rivets follow the lines of the bordering.
The helmet is umbrilled and the breastplate is short
and slightly ridged. It bears the dent of a musket
ball, probably a test mark. Tassets of twelve
plates are attached to the rim of the breastplate
by screws and nuts, the last five plates being remo-
Fig. 8.
vable at pleasure. The greaves and sollerets do
not belong to the harness.
This suit is illustrated on Fig VI.
Number 1146.
This interesting armour marks nearly the latest
stage of an industry that may well be classed
among the fine arts; and on which a wealth of
skill- and ingenuity as well as fine taste and artistic
feeling of the very highest order has been so pro-
fusely lavished. The genius of the renaissance
found in the armourer’s craft, and in those of the
cognate artists the decorator and embellislier, a
Geld of expression perhaps as fascinating and in-
spiring as that afiforded by the painter’s brush or
even the sculptors chisel. The enrichment of ar-
mour of later mediaeval times, and of the earlier
Zeitschrift für historische Waffenkunde.
III. Band.
No. 1098 is a similar armour by the same
Augsburg smith.
No. 1119 is illustrated 011 Fig. V.
Number 474.
On the top of the breastplate is a border
of classic figures and animals; the harness, gene-
rally, is banded boldly in strapwork on a gilt
ground. Tliere is an extra plate over the left
breast and shoulder; and another rises from the
thigh to the centre of the breastplate on that side.
The breastplate, of the peasecod type, is flanged
over the right shoulder; and the lance-rest is small
and folds up. This harness is for Freiturnier
(Free Course), in which a large garde-de-bras
(Stechmäusel) was used in place ofthemanteau
d’armes and the pasgarde1) of Welsches
Gestech. The pasgarde is not present, but the
coude is holed for it.
The difference between welsches Gestech and
Freitournier lay in the circumstance that the
latter was run in the open field or lists, without
a tilt between the jousters. Freiturnier, like
Rennen and Stechen, required more skill and
initiative than did welsches Gestech. The lance
and horse furniture were of the same kind in both
cases, and the body armour of the jousters very
similar; but subject to the interchange of reinforcing
pieces. A suit in the Dresden collection, labelled
v. Holtzendorff is for Freiturnier; as also is that
of Karl Schürft von Schonwert (died 1628). Boeheim
gives an illustration of the last named harness in
liis Waffenkunde as being for das neue welsche
Gestech über das Dill, but I believe this is
not so.
By the commencement of the seventeenth Cen-
tury all the older forms of jousting had fallen into
disuse, with the exception of Freiturnier; and a
sort of skirmish, troop against trepp, called Schar-
mützel. Ringelrennen (running at the ring) also
prevailed greatly, but this game cannot be classecl
as belonging to the tourney.
Number 958.
This suit is without any'very special features
be)mnd the fact that each part is stamped in
numbers, a circumstance suggestive of its having
formed one of a series of armours made to the
same pattern, and possibly of the same size.
A contributing cause to the gradual disuse of
armour was the increasing badness of the fit; and
one sometimes reads of Contemporary complaints
made more especially perhaps after the first half
of the sixteenth Century, of the frequency of badly
fitting plates; which caused great sufifering to the
wearers by reason of the chafing into sores. No
i) This is the real pasgarde (Stechmäuschen); the word
is often used as a clesignation for an upriglit neck guarcl, but
erroneously.
wonder that armour was sometimes thrown away
in a campaign in spite of regulations.
I have illustrated this harness here, more
especially, with a view of giving on these pages
as full a representation as space will allow of the
various styles and periods covered by the collection
as a whole. The suit dates probably in the second
quarter of the seventeenth Century; and rows of
brass-headed rivets follow the lines of the bordering.
The helmet is umbrilled and the breastplate is short
and slightly ridged. It bears the dent of a musket
ball, probably a test mark. Tassets of twelve
plates are attached to the rim of the breastplate
by screws and nuts, the last five plates being remo-
Fig. 8.
vable at pleasure. The greaves and sollerets do
not belong to the harness.
This suit is illustrated on Fig VI.
Number 1146.
This interesting armour marks nearly the latest
stage of an industry that may well be classed
among the fine arts; and on which a wealth of
skill- and ingenuity as well as fine taste and artistic
feeling of the very highest order has been so pro-
fusely lavished. The genius of the renaissance
found in the armourer’s craft, and in those of the
cognate artists the decorator and embellislier, a
Geld of expression perhaps as fascinating and in-
spiring as that afiforded by the painter’s brush or
even the sculptors chisel. The enrichment of ar-
mour of later mediaeval times, and of the earlier