Jeff had been kind enough to forward some "baby pictures" (I collect them, with the idea of putting up a pictorial essay of armour under construction on our website) for me of what will be replacing my upper harness shortly, and so I thought I'd share.

It is a close copy of Lucern HM11, an associated breast and backplate atributed to have been captured at Morat in 1476. The primary difference being the original has a more severe wasp-waist. I'm not a stout man, at 5'8" and 173 lbs, but I am not stick-boy as the original owner seems to have been. At least it has a waist.

There will be a fauld of 4 lames, tassets, side tassets, and a cutlet plate, staples and lance rest. It is being paired with copies of curtatone B2. from the Madonna della Grazzi, slightly modified stylisticaly to match the fashion for the export market - namely some restrained fluting on the couters and gard braces, and guard of the vambrace - matching Franco/Flemish art of the 1460's & 70's.

When done, my harness should be documentable to be Burgundian (as in representing what would probably have been made by an Italian armourer in a workshop in Flanders, or a Northern Italian armourer for that market), and for precisely "when" I am portraying.

Mac is currently working on a chapel de fer also atrributed to be part of 'die Burgunderbeaute', with a stylisticaly matching bevor for my 'half armed' impression.

I thought it was appropriate for an 'officer in Burgundian service' to have some distinctly Franco/Flemish armour.

I am just fascinated by pictures of armour in progress, and then comparing them to the finished product.

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-Chuck Davis

Here are some more photos of the progress. The first shot shows the depth of the breastplate.

The second, third, and fourth shots show the development of the plackart and the finishing of the fleur finial - Jeff has nailed the shape of the fleur dead-on, when it is done, I will post some pictures of the original breastplate for a comparison, but needless to say, I am delighted with the attention to detail.

The last shot is that of the cannons of the vambrace in progress, along with the guard of the vambrace. In the edge of the photo, you can see a little of one of Jeffs own arms as a comparison, and the breastplate is to the left. even at this later stage of 15th century armour development, there is shaping to the lower cannons of the vambrace. They are not simple gutter shaped tubes, although the shaping isn't as pronounced as on lower cannons of Italian manufacture in the 1420's-40's.

Again, I love to see how the metal goes from sheet to take it's shape, and see how heat is used in the forming of complex shapes, or when giving depth to the piece.

At this stage, I'm like a kid waiting for the fellow behind the ice-cream stand to finish his sunday. It is a pleasant, rather than an unpleasant anticipation.

Thanks for the kind commentary thus far - it is a tribute to Jeff's (and Greg's) skill. All I did was hem and haw about the precise elements I would order.

Wait till you see the livery in the form of a cioppa that Gwen will be making me. Swiss crossbowmen will have a dandy mark to aim at.

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OK, so more coffee is in order for me this morning!

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Coffee, might I suggest Blueberry. Mmmmm....

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Since there had been some interest in seeing this how it looks now, here it is in it's element, on horseback, on a training day with me and Normandie - me posing as a Burgundian man-at-arms of 1473, and him as an intact courser, instead of a gelding.

Head on

side view

Sorry for the quality of the pictures - a crappy camera, the in motion shots were too blury to bother with.

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It's fantastic to finally see a pic of you on your horse in harness! 'Bout time, mate!

Don't worry about the tassets, they stick out over the front of a Portuguese saddle too. Not really any way around it, except to get a correct medieval saddle with the larger arcon. I remove my tassets for jousting in Portuguese saddles over at the Armouries, or when I use mine here.

May I offer a couple of suggestions on your riding position? --

If it's possible with the stirrup placement on the Aussie saddle, try riding with your stirrups a bit longer and straighten your leg, get your feet a little more "under" you, and sit tall. In those pictures, you look like you're slouching some in your torso. Throw your shoulders back and stick your chest out a little if you can. Be 'proud'!

Your bevor looks a little far from your face, which is likely overly restricting your downward vision and view of the horse, which is a primary reason for wearing the kettle hat rather than your armet. Also, rein with your palm down, with one rein between your thumb and index finger, the other between your ring and little fingers. You'll have the neck reining, plus some ability to direct rein for bending Norm's neck.

Please take these suggestions as "constructive" criticism and encouragement, as they are intended.

Keep it up-- you'll be using sword and lance in no time....

Cheers, mate!

Good eye, the bevor was a lot looser than intended. A friend helped arm Bob and didn't quite strap it tight enough. Something Bob was acutely aware of when we reviewed the pictures.

The gauntlets that he currently have, are a disaster. He's having them replaced. They are Medieval Repro's and though designed for combat don't really seem a good fit for equestrian pursuits.

Bob used to ride with a lengthened stirrup, but for general purpose riding, in this particular saddle, it's not a balanced position. Having been his holder for this exercise, I think that the lengthened stirrup will definitely help in armor. Though a proper saddle would help more.

The whole exercise for horse and man was a good one overall. Normandie displayed once again that he has a good head for it and is quite game.

Thanks for the suggestions. We didn't take them any other way than as intended.

Bob's looking forward to more serious drill and lance work. It was a good day.

Cheers,

Jenn

edited to fix the wrong armory on the gauntlets.

[ 09-05-2005: Message edited by: chef de chambre ]

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Actually, I was uncomfortably aware of the bevor being loose a few seconds after it was on, but I couldn't get anyone to do anything about it, they were off working on something else by then. I look like I'm slumping in the saddle, especially in the side pic because I'm trying to thrust my chin farther forward into it to improve my downward vision.

The stirrups are way short for me, because unbeknownst to me at the time (although I wondered why mounting was a struggle), our friend and helper, a local girl named Paige was riding Norm the night before (It was a Higgins day so I wasn't able to be at the barn, and she was excersizing him for me - but I hadn't known she had shown up to do it), so they are set for a 5'2" tall 17 year old girl

I've done some lance and sword work out of harness, and Norm doesn't mind the lance at all, but occasionally starts at the noise the sword makes being swung (nothing major, just a 'huh? What was that?' pop of his head).

I meant to be much farther along by now, but Norm did not stop growing until this year, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't pushing him too hard too fast in training - I want him healthy and happy 20 years from now. Worse yet the year before last I had injured my back moving a sofa, and it took a while to heal, delaying things further. I was going to ride in a half harness of my brigandine and the arms you made me at Calais 2004, until we had the coyote incident and Norm getting the rope burn and fall as the picket line failed, so I didn't get the chance.

Oh well, we continue forward all the time. Better later than I wanted than never.

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