Spetchley - Property from the Berkeley Collection

Spetchley - Property from the Berkeley Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 9. A GERMAN FULL ARMOUR IN THE INNSBRUCK STYLE OF 1540, 19TH CENTURY, PROBABLY NUREMBURG.

A GERMAN FULL ARMOUR IN THE INNSBRUCK STYLE OF 1540, 19TH CENTURY, PROBABLY NUREMBURG

Auction Closed

December 11, 04:05 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

A GERMAN FULL ARMOUR IN THE INNSBRUCK STYLE OF 1540, 19TH CENTURY, PROBABLY NUREMBURG


comprising close helmet with one-piece skull rising to a low roped medial comb, and bellows visor and bevor attached to it by common pivots, the visor pierced with a series of horizontal ventilation-slots and the bevor and skull each formed at their lower edges with a roped and internally hollowed rim that locks over and rotates on the turned upper edge of a collar of four lames, the lowest three of which are cut at the centres their upper edges with ogees, medially ridged breastplate boldly roped at the neck and struck with Nuremburg control mark and the spurious mark of Valentin Siebenburger, fitted with roped gussets at the arm-openings, a detachable folding-lance rest at the right armpit, a pair of hinged hasps at each side for the attachment of a backplate, at its with a waist-lame flanged outwards to receive a fauld of two lames and pendent tassets each of three lames, matching backplate marked at the neck en suite, fitted with a waist-lame flanged outwards to receive a culet of two lames, a pair of asymmetrical pauldrons each fitted at its front with a reinforce, three-piece vambraces comprising upper cannons with turners, large one-piece-couters, lower cannons, and a pair of mitten gauntlets, a pair of full leg-defences comprising one-piece gutter-shaped cuisses, winged poleyns, greaves and articulated broad-toed sabatons, the main edges of the armour with roped turns accompanied by double-recessed borders, the tassets, pauldrons, couters, and poleyns all embossed with tapering medial bands of scales (small areas of rust and some disarticulation), on a fabric-covered dummy with well carved wooden head, on a wooden stand

Inventory, 1949, 'A German cap-a-pie Suite of Armour with fluted grid visor and cable neck, plaster mask within, hinged lance rest on breast plate, winged knee caps and square toed sollerets (circa 1550) [sic]' in the Staircase Hall

City of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, Commemorative Exhibition of the Art Treasures of the Midlands, 1934, no. 69 (lent by R.G. Berkeley, Esq.).

This armour appears to be inspired by that made in 1537 for Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (1503-64) by the celebrated Innsbruck court armourer Jörg Seusenhofer (1528-80) and etched by Leonhard Meurl (died 1547), now preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. A472). The present armour forms part of a group that were manufactured, some incorporating earlier elements, during the late 19th and early 20th century in Southern Germany and Austria.