A COMPOSITE HARQUEBUSIER'S ARMOUR, CIRCA 1630-40, LONDON OR GREENWICH, comprising pot with hemis

A COMPOSITE HARQUEBUSIER'S ARMOUR, CIRCA 1630-40, LONDON OR GREENWICH, comprising pot with hemispherical skull formed in two pieces joined medially along a low comb, its brow fitted with a broad obtusely-pointed pivoted peak supporting on its underside a triple-barred face-guard riveted through later washers, and its nape, with a matching one-piece neck-guard embossed to simulate four lames (articulation-points and left border showing some damage), one-piece breastplate of late peascod form flanged outwards at its lower edge and fitted at either side of the chest with a pierced stud and swivel- hook for the attachment of a shoulder-strap, the swivel-hook riveted over a fretted rosette washer, and matching one-piece backplate with flanged neck-opening and lower edge, the latter fitted at either side with a pair of later pierced studs, the remainder fitted with incomplete scaled shoulder-straps (only the first scale of each original), a pair of rivets for the attachment of inner shoulder-straps, and a waist-belt (replaced, its buckle detached), and long gauntlet for the left hand formed of a medially-ridged two-piece tubular cuff shaped to the point of the elbow and fitted at its lower end with both an inner and an outer wrist-plate, the former projecting as a semi-circular lobe over the base of the thumb, and the latter bearing three metacarpal-plates, the last having a shaped projection at its inner end for the attachment of a missing thumb-defence and a shaped knuckle-plate, the main edges of the armour decorated with plain inward turns, accompanied on the peak and neck-guard of the pot by recessed borders and elsewhere by single incised lines repeated at all subsidiary edges, its surfaces originally blackened (now extensively rusted), stand not included. This armour is of notable high quality. The absence of London marks makes it likely that it was made in the royal armour workshops at Greenwich. Following an official investigation of criticisms brought against it in 1630, the workshop lost its privilege of working only for the King and those who bore his personal warrant. Its output thereafter is thought to have included pikemens' and harquebusiers' armours of a quality appropriate for wear by officers and select units. Our cuirass resembles one from Littlecote House, Wiltshire, now in the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, Inv. No. III. 1957-8, which is thought to have belonged to Col. Alexander Popham, as well as others on loan to that museum from Scrivelsby Court, Lincolnshire, seat of the Dymoke family, hereditary royal champions. Comparison can also be made with the cuirass of the fine Greenwich harquebusier's armour in the Royal Armouries at the Tower of London, Inv. No. II. 92, made for the King Charles II about 1635 (T. Richardson 2004, pp. 11-12). The basal thumb-defence of the gauntlet forming part of the present lot shows the influence of earlier Greenwich examples. The heavy cuirass of the armour is for a man of notable size.