A RARE EUROPEAN MAIL CAPE OR PISAIN, PROBABLY GERMAN, EARLY 16TH CENTURY

A RARE EUROPEAN MAIL CAPE OR PISAIN, PROBABLY GERMAN, EARLY 16TH CENTURY composed entirely of riveted iron rings, those at the upstanding neck-opening and base of the throat densely arranged in alternating rows of rectangular and half-round-section wire, the remainder of rectangular section wire, well-shaped to the shoulders, extending downwards to an obtuse points at both the front and rear of the waist, and formed with a central opening at the front (small losses) Mail capes such as this, referred to by modern collectors as ~bishops~ mantles~, were known at the time of their use as ~pisains~. Two similar examples are in the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, Inv. Nos. III. 13 & 14, in one case fitted with a Nuremberg-inscribed brass ring. Another, also opening at the front and now mounted on a so-called ~Landsknecht armour~ is preserved in the Stibbert Museum, Florence. Others of an early fashion were formerly in the collections of Sir Guy Laking and Felix Joubert. See Laking 1920, Vol. II, figs 530-1). Another example, formerly in the collection of Baron Armand van Zeulen (1838-96) and sold Sotheby~s, London (1st April 1980, lot 81) was sold in this room 26th June 2007, lot 283.