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Equestrian armour
  • Date: c. 1532 - 1536
    1532 (chanfron)
    1536 (saddle)
  • Medium: Composite construction employing various steels and possibly iron, velvet, gold, copper alloy and leather, fluted, etched, painted and gilded
  • Weight: 26.396 kg, total weight for man armour
  • Weight: 28.47 kg, total weight for horse armour
  • Inv: A29
  • Location: Arms and Armour III
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Description
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  • A29 COMPOSITE EQUESTRIAN ARMOUR

    Comprised of pieces made for Otto Heinrich, Count Palatine of the Rhine (1502-1559).

    Consists of:

    BURGONET with low roped comb, a fall or peak pivoted at the sides; chin-piece fixed at the same points in the manner of a close-helmet, to which is attached a visor of two plates contrived as a falling buff (see also A36 and A181). At the neck are two gorget lames front and back.

    GORGET with circular roped flange on the collar, which is connected by three articulated lames to the main plates, back and front. It opens on a hinge on the left side and fastens by a slot and rivet on the right. Sprocket pins are fixed on a pivoted metal strap, one to each shoulder, for the pauldrons. In a sunk band passing round the neck is etched a representation of a neck-chain of large circular links.

    BREASTPLATE of plain, globose form, with the borders of the gussets and neck roped and accompanied by a sunk band. It is etched in the centre of the breast with the Virgin and Child in glory standing on the crescent moon.

    BACKPLATE of one piece, attached by hinged iron straps to the breast. The REAR SKIRT of five lames is a modern restoration.

    TASSETS of eleven lames, plain with sunk borders and a central band, the lower portions of each are detachable at the fifth lame by means of a hook-and-eye. The fifth lame has a roped and etched border, so that the upper part could be worn without the lower lames.

    PAULDRONS plain with sunk borders and bands, built of two large and three small lames; on the shoulders are two holes with rosette-shaped brass washers for points, and a hole for engaging the sprocket. The pauldrons are close-fitting in front and do not cover the armpits, but extend well over the shoulder blades at the back.

    VAMBRACES, fluted, each consisting of upper cannon, couter with side-wing, lower cannon in two parts fastened by two hinges and a stud. Entirely modern (late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century).

    GAUNTLETS, the surfaces plain with straight cuffs with hinged wrist band, metacarpal plates of six lames with indented edges and bevelled borders like the gorget, roped knuckle-plate and mittens of five lames similarly shaped.

    Short fluted CUISSES and POLEYNS, consisting of a knee-piece articulated once above and twice below, together with a fluted, heart-shaped side-wing.

    GREAVES of large size, built in two parts, front and back, fastened by two hinges on the outer and two studs on the inner sides. At the back is a hook to hold the strap of the poleyns. These pieces were once plain greaves of the sixteenth century; the etching is modern.

    SABATONS with broad square toes, with four articulated lames at the instep and four at the toe, making ten in all, including the middle lame and toe-cap; the forward lames are fluted.

    SPURS with rowels of eight points riveted to the heel of the sabatons.

    HORSE ARMOUR, consisting of:

    SHAFFRON, formed of a main plate, cheek-pieces, ear-guards and poll-plate, plain without fluting. The borders are pierced with trefoil ornament, now backed with velvet; there is an escutcheon fixed to the forehead with central spike with pyramidal point, etched with the arms of the Palatinate and Bavaria (quarterly, 1 and 4 a crowned lion rampant, 2 and 3 chequy-lozengy). On the brow three pairs of holes with brass rosette-shaped washers for threading points. Four more are on the poll-plate. The shaffron bears on a tablet on the poll-piece the date 1536 and the peak of the saddle is dated 1532, showing that the work was carried out over a considerable period.

    BIT with S-shaped branches of steel. The port bar was probably put in to fit the mouth of the present horse mannequin. The curb chain is modern.

    REINS, consisting of three longitudinal plates on each side, hinged together, fluted and etched in the same manner as the armour.

    CRINET of eleven overlapping lames, fluted, with pronounced roping along the ridge of the neck ending in a boldly roped border at the withers. The edges at the sides are also roped.

    PEYTRAL built of three main plates, fluted, with sunk borders and bands etched and gilt, relieved with two circular bosses with raised decoration in the form of a cross. The lower edges are boldly roped; two smaller, vertical plates at the sides are attached by sliding rivets.

    SADDLE STEELS, consisting of three plates joined in front of the bow, fluted, with etched and gilt bands and sunk border; and one rounded plate on the cantle at the back similarly treated.

    STIRRUPS. The left stirrup, which has fluted triangular sides decorated with etched and gilt borders, and a flat rectangular tread, is original. The right stirrup, which is undecorated, is a restoration.

    The DECORATION of this armour takes the form of recessed borders and bands etched with foliage, trophies and grotesques on a granulated ground, fully gilt; the gilding has been restored. The rest of the surface is painted black. Sir Guy Laking believed it to be composed of parts taken from two armours, one fluted and one plain. Mann (1962) disagreed, believing it to be more homogeneous, while Norman (1986) pointed out the evidence for the presence of pieces from as many as eight different sources: (1) The inner edge of the etched bands of the breastplate and the gauntlets are followed by a bright sunken band. They match precisely the closed burgonet A181 in the Wallace Collection; (2) The burgonet of A29 and probably its pauldrons come from another armour belonging to Otto Heinrich in the Musée de I' Armée, Paris (G.40); (3) The gorget does not fit satisfactorily under the cuirass. It has plain ground etching unlike that on any other part of the armour and its edges are bracket cut. (4) The tassets have been much altered and were once a good deal broader. They have had a third suspension strap. The etching has been re-worked. (5) The cuisses and poleyns are fluted unlike any other part of the armour except the saddle, peytral and rein-guards, but the etching does not include any trophies and grotesques while the etching of the latter pieces does. (6) The greaves are apparently from a white armour and the etching is modern. (7) The shaffron has plain ground etching quite different from that on the gorget. (8) The front skirt is probably a later restoration and the arms, backplate, and rear skirt certainly are. The arms are clearly made by the same restorer as a pair of arms on a fluted armour which is now at Eastnor Castle but was originally apparently at Neuburg with A29.

    The Nuremberg mark is stamped upon the fall of the burgonet, both pauldrons, and the front of the peytral. There is a trace of a mark on the left stirrup.

    By Hans Ringler of Nuremberg, dated 1532 and 1536.

    Mann, Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. XXVII, 1941; Von Reitzenstein, 'Einige Harnische des Pfatzgrafen Ottheinrich', Pantheon, XXXI, 1943, pp. 186-91; von Reitzenstein, 'Der Ringlersche Harnisch des Pfalzgrafen Ottheinrich', Akzeiger des Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 1964, pp. 44-56; von Reitzenstein, 'Eine Harnischbrust des Hans Ringler im Britischen Museum', Waffen- und Kostüimkunde, VII, 1965, pp. 122-3; von Reitzenstein, 'Die Harnischkammer des Neuburger Schlosses im Jahre 1628', Waffen- und Kostümkunde, 1973, pp. 146-58, particularly p. 150; Capwell 2011, pp. 94-7.

    Provenance: The Elector, Otto Heinrich, kept in his castle of Neuburg on the Danube; Napoleon I; William Bullock; T. Gwennap; probably bought by Sir S. R. Meyrick at the G. Robins sale, London, 10- 11 June, 1833, lot 155; Frédéric Spitzer.

    Exhibited: Oplotheca, 1816, No. 13, as well as 1817, No. 14; Gothic Hall, 1818, No. 21; Royal Armoury, Haymarket (after 1820), No. 19; Manchester Art Treasures, 1857 (Planché, 1857, pp. 10-11); S. Kensington Museum, 1869, p. 10 and No. 271 (Illustrated London News, LIV, 1869, illus. on p. 88).


    The late Dr. Hans Stöcklein identified this armour and another at Paris (Musée de l' Armée, G40) as components of a black equestrian harness made for Otto Heinrich, Count Palatine of the Rhine (1502-59), described in three inventories of the arsenal of Neuburg on the Danube, of 1628, 1654 and 1750, which are preserved in the State Archives at Munich. The contents of the arsenal were removed by General Moreau at the time of the occupation by the French army in 1800.

    The Wallace Collection and Paris armours bear the dates 1532 and 1533, respectively, and Dr. Stöcklein further linked them with an armour known to have been ordered by Otto Heinrich from the Nuremberg armourer, Hans Ringler, in 1531.

    Certain double-pieces belonging to the same set can also be traced, namely a black reinforcing breast decoration with the Madonna and Child in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum at Munich, and two spare buffs, one in the last-named museum and the other in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (Schloss Mainberg sale, 1901).

    Mann noted that in the inventories the armour is described as black with gilt etched bands ('Schwarz mit geezten unnd vergullen Raiffen') with the Bavarian arms upon the shaffron; that of 1654 further specifies a black breast with etched and gilt borders and in the centre the Virgin and Child, and mentions a smaller breast similarly decorated (that now at Munich). In fact, although the inventory of Neuburg made in 1628 includes a long list of parts of black and gold armours, the only piece of A29 which can be identified therein with any certainty is the shaffron: 'eine Rosstirn, darauf vorn das bayerische Wappen, un die Nase durchsichtig, mit Strichen. Zugehörig eine kleine stählerne Schiftung'.

    The detail of the Madonna and Child is mentioned again in a list of the armours, together with their traditional owners, dating from 22 May, 1801, the time of the confiscation of the armoury, 'Otto illustris, mit Gold aufgelegt hat das Marien-bild auf der Brust'.

    Dr. Stöcklein's notes have been edited and published by Freiherr Alexander von Reitzenstein, Die Harnische der Neuburger Rüstkammer, in Z.H.W.K., XVI (1940-2), pp. 42-51. There is a painted leather bard of Otto Heinrich at Turin, inv. no. B2 (Stöcklein, Münchner Jahrbuch, 1928, pp. 59-63), and a gun bearing his name and arms, dated 1533, was sold at the Dorotheum, Vienna, 1912 (Stöcklein, Pantheon II (1928), pp. 364-5). A white half-armour of very large proportions in the Musée de I' Armée at Paris (G137) is also ascribed to him. See the catalogue of the exhibition commemorating the fourth centenary of Otto Heinrich, held in the Castle of Heidelberg in 1956 (Georg Poensgen, Ottheinrich: Gedenkschrift zur Vierhunderjährigen Wiederkehr, seiner Kurfürstenzeit; section by Freiherr von Reitzenstein on his armour, pp. 105-17).

    A29 is illustrated and described on plates VIII and IX of the unpublished third volume of Sir Samuel Meyrick's catalogue of his collection at Goodrich Court as the armour of 'William IVth Duke of Bavaria A.D. 1532', and Meyrick stated in a MS. note that it 'was purchased in Paris by Mr. William Bullock, and afterwards ... found its way into Mr. Gwennap's collection, at the sale of which it was bought to complete the series at Goodrich Court. It is black, fluted and engraved, the engravings being gilt and the horse furniture is of the same character. The date appears on the saddle.' Meyrick's drawing (pl. VIII) shows a mail brayette, which no longer accompanies the armour. Bullock was the proprietor of 'Bullock's Museum' which was shown at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, and T. Gwennap promoted the Oplotheca and Gothic Hall exhibitions, from which Sir Samuel Meyrick obtained other objects now in this Collection. A29 can be recognised in an aquatint entitled: 'The Interior of the Oplotheca in Brook Street, Bond Street, being the finest collection of Antient Armour in Europe now open for public inspection. Drawn by W. M. Craig. Etch'd by S. Mitan. Engraved by T. Sutherland. London, Published 1816 by Edwd. Orme, New Bond Street.' The Oplotheca exhibition, which was continued for a number of years, was later shown in Opera House Colonnade, Pall Mall (off the Haymarket). A29 is described in the Catalogue of the Oplotheca, 1817 (no. 14), and Gothic Hall (no. 22) as the "Armour of the Elector Joseph of Bavaria, on horseback.... Taken by Napoleon Bonaparte from the Armoury at Munich." A drawing of this armour by Géricault was in an auction sale at Bern on 16 June, 1960, when it was described as being one of several existing sketches by him of the same armour. This drawing is now in the Kunsthalle in Bremen (A. von Reitzenstein, letter of 20 February 1964). The attribution has been doubted. However, when Géricault visited London, he certainly did so under the auspices of Bullock who owned this armour at the time (S. Lodge, 'Géricault in England', Burlington Magazine, CVII, 1965, pp. 616-27). See also S. Duffy, ‘French Artists and the Meyrick Armoury’, Burlington Magazine (vol. 151, no. 1274, May 2009), pp. 284-92.

    Otto Heinrich, or Ottheinrich, as he is often called, was joint ruler with his brother, Philip, of part of the Wittelsbach estates, and in 1542 embraced the Protestant faith. He fought against the Emperor Charles V in the War of Schmalkalde, and in 1556 succeeded his father as Elector Palatine. He was a lavish patron of the arts and learning, founded the library at Heidelberg University, enlarged the castle of Heidelberg and built his own castle at Neuburg on the Danube. There is a document in existence signed by King Henry VIII at Hampton Court, treating for a marriage between his daughter, Mary Tudor, and Otto Heinrich, which, if it had taken place, might have effectively changed the course of English history. He is also represented in the Wallace Collection by a boxwood draughtsman S286, and a silver medal, S410, both with his profile portrait in relief.