A Vienna Armour, close up.

 A random piece of armour in the war Museum in Vienna.   Unlike the Kuntsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. (a monument to the sport of jousting.  Over there in the new palace is the huge collection brought together by the Hapsburgs.  Basically,  Arch Duke Ferdinand of Tyrol,  Maximillian's collection. There is a war armour section as well.  There will be a lot more of that in the months coming!)   The war museum on the other hand,  is about...um...war.  Below are some close ups with some of my commentary.  First of all...check out the above full view.  A beautiful fire coloured armour with symmetrical shoulders.  This does not look like a jousting or sport armour...the fellow who wore this was prepared for some serious war work.  Its footman's armour...

Lots of good visibility.  I note that the cheek pieces are long enough to be intercepted by the gorget. So its not as open as you might think.  OTOH, I would not want to look up into the arrow storm. 

The barrels on the upper arms are very interesting.  I don't think they are attached to the spauldlers. That is to say, they don't have that interlocking rotating thing that was all the rage at the time.  I suspect the arms are held up by internal leather strapping.  Same as most of the arms that come out of my shop come to think of it.  But the total wrap around of the upper arm is unusual enough for me to point it out.      And look at that beautiful spaldler.  The body is in lames as well as the usual lames up above.  Mobility would be stunning.  I love the matching armour nails (rivets) for the picadills on the topo and bottom.   Lend a nice "boiler" look.

If you look closely, you can see that the harnesshmidt  made the upper arms rounded to fit the arm underneath.  I "should" do them that way...but it takes time and adds to the price. I just leave them flat, same as most of them did back in the day.

The gorget in the picture above is interesting.  It seems almost like a "dog collar" gorget.  Never saw one like it anywhere else.  I wonder if the row of rivets we see along the top held a sort of grande guard of heavy leather once upon a time.  I see that the breastplate is uncomplicated. 

The elbow is very nice.  It would have a LOT of mobility 

The gauntlets are, again, very "ordinance".  The deep flute in the thumb base is interesting. 

 And you can so easily see how nice the tassets and the leg armour come together with those pins at the waist.

Well, there you go.  A nice close up of a random Vienna armour.  I have no idea of its provenance, its age, or anything else.  But it IS the bar we try to conquer here in the shop.


http://www.khm.at/en/visit/collections/collection-of-arms-and-armour/