Sunday, February 28, 2010

15th Century Jousting Targes Faced With Stag Horn




Photos by Wendy McLean

The photos are all of a group of harnesses in the Musee de l'Armee, Paris. The Musee is unethusiastic about providing labels for this part of the collection, but the catalogue identifies the center harness in the top photo as a Gestech harness from Ausburg, ca. 1510. You can click on each image for a closer view.

Similar shields are described in a MS published as "Du Costume militaire des Francais en 1446", reproduced in both Cripps-Day and Ffoulkes.
Item: the shields with which they joust in France are made, first, from wood of the thickness of a finger, and reinforced [nervez] within and without for thickness of a finger or less; and the the said reinforcement [nerveure] on the outside is covered with little pieces, the size and shape of the squares of a chess board, made of the hardest material they can find, and they are ordinarily made from stag horn taken near the crown, the very same material used to make nuts for crossbows.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Could you share your photos
on Jousting armour?
(Stechzeug)
Here is my blog.
http://blog.naver.com/smartjoono/220107547313

I'm constantly uploading posts concerning the stechzeug.
However, It is hard to upload some of the photos as they are copyrighted. (Also hard to update because of that)
If you could provide some photos of your collection, it will be really appreciated.

-Joono-