A Late 16th. Century Armour
An example of a late 16th.C armour
In Germany around 1530 the cuirass began to develope a central vertical keel. Under Italian influence by the end of the 16th. C this had become longer waisted into the peascod shape, the waistline becoming sharply pointed downwards at the centre. At the same time the tassets became wider at the hips to accommodate the increasing size of the contemporary bombasted breeches. The laminated skirt of the back-plate gradually became shorter until, by the middle of the century, it consisted of a single lame or even a flange formed by a flairing out of the lower edge of the back-plate.
This armour is essentially a re-working of a previous armour I made some years ago ( the original can still be seen in the Gallery section ). The only sections I have retained are the cuirass and front tassets - the remainder of the armour to be re-made. As before, I shall attempt not to be too repetitive in relation to the previous projects - although inevitably some of the ground will have been covered previously. If there is an aspect of the construction you would like to see in more detail, then please do e-mail me and I'll try to incorporate it when I write up that section.