MASTERY ARMOR

European work, Germany? 19th century

polychrome steel

H.: 49; Long. : 22; L.: 11 cm

Miniature harness, called master's harness, modeled after French medieval armor from the 15th – 16th centuries. It is fully articulated in steel and assembled with leather fastening straps.

Like real horseman's armor, this reduced representation is composed of an openwork armet with a removable visor, a gorget, pauldrons, a breastplate, arm and forearm cannons, elbow pads, gauntlets, haunches, sleepers and sabatons. The cuirass is animated by a horseman and the whole armor is decorated with foliage scrolls.

Illustrative photograph: Octave de Penguilly L'Haridon, Album of the Arms Cabinet of His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon III, Paris 1867, pl. face p. 24, detail.

Text and photos © FCP CORIDON

Ref.LP: 3371