Gill — A Family of Sword Cutlers

Abstract

Amongst the armour in the collection of the British Museum is a kettle-hat (Object Number: P&;E 1856,0701·2243) that was found in London during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. In January 2010, the kettle-hat was conserved before its loan to the Royal Armouries Museum for display at the Tower of London. New findings that occurred during conservation led to the most in-depth technical examination and analysis of this relatively unknown helmet since its discovery.

This paper aims to interpret the British Museum’s kettle-hat from art historical perspectives in order to place it in a wider context. The development of the kettle-hat during the 14th and 15th centuries is described along with the subsequent derivatives of transitional or progressive forms of helmet. Through stylistic comparison and consideration of related evidence it is suggested that the British Museum kettle-hat dates to the late 14th century and is of western European, possibly English, workmanship. Furthermore, although the British Museum helmet has much in common with typical forms of kettle-hat, it also has features, such as a short tail-piece, that suggest it may be closely related to some early forms of sallet.     

Asbestos in the collection of the Royal Armouries and the conservation of a First World War German gasmask

In March 2015, in order to comply with Health and Safety Regulations, the Royal Armouries contracted an external company to carry out an asbestos audit. This article looks at what that audit entailed and also how a gasmask suspected of containing asbestos, was made safe in order to conserve and display it.     

The Danzig Gun: A Rare Decorated Bronze Handgun of the 15th Century

For the first time in English, this short article describes an important and early handgun of approximately 1400AD, originally found near Danzig in the 1920s and recently acquired by the Royal Armouries Museum. The gun is at once of characteristic design, yet exhibits particular decorative features that set it apart from other known examples referenced herein. The note goes on to explore the possible significance of the decoration, specifically the bearded faces cast around the muzzle. It note closes by identifying and differentiating known modern copies of this piece.     

Royal Armouries Acquisitions 2012

Abstract

The Royal Armouries collection contains many Indian combination weapons, many of which have neither been published nor displayed. This article sets out to describe three unusual firearm related items. These are what appears to be an elaborate gunner's staff of a unique type, a pair of guns that can be combined and shot as a combination and finally a percussion gun shield.     

A German High Tournament Saddle in the Royal Armouries,Leeds

The Royal Armouries of Leeds preserves a rare example of an early fifteenth-century German tournament high saddle that is also one of the earliest complete western medieval saddles preserved. It bears witness to an extreme form of tournament which stood very far from the real practice of war: the Hohenzeuggestech. Impact marks of lances and swords, visible on the saddle, reveal the violence of the blows exchanged during these meetings, a violence often hard to observe in the contemporary but conventional representations of jousters and tourneyers. Thus, by the means of its excellent state of preservation, the Leeds high saddle sheds some light on the jousts and tourneys on high saddles, once so popular and plentiful in what remains of the civilian iconography of the late fourteenth- and the fifteenth-century Germanic world.     

Home-Grown Fighting: A Response to the Argument for a Byzantine Influence on MS I.33

Abstract

In an earlier issue, Dr. Timothy Dawson suggested that the fighting techniques found in Royal Armouries MS I.33 may have been influenced by earlier Byzantine sword and shield combat. For evidence, he cites a series of 9th-century ivory carvings depicting similar positions found in I.33. This article is a response to Dr. Dawson’s, in which it is argued that there is ample evidence for similar combat positions being found in Western Europe that both pre-date and are contemporary with I.33.     

The Tower at War 1914–18: Foreman Buckingham Goes To War

Abstract

A small part of the White Tower displays at the Royal Armouries at the Tower is marking the centenary of the First World War and the role the Tower of London played in the War, the links between the site, its staff and the great event are described. The importance of Charles ffoulkes as curator in developing the collection is emphasized. The choice of display content and the way the exhibition will change to reflect each year of the war is described, starting with material from 1914 displayed during 2014 in ‘Foreman Buckingham goes to war’.     

Plastics in arms and armour in the Royal Armouries collection

Abstract

Problems with a few of the early plastics within the Royal Armouries collections recently revealed that this area was little researched and that more detailed work was needed. The purpose of this paper is to look at the range of semi-synthetic and synthetic plastics in the collection and present some of our preliminary findings. It will consider their varied uses before looking at some of the problems that have been encountered. It will not be covering natural plastics such as rubber, gutta percha, etc. Our initial survey revealed that there are approximately 500 objects which have a synthetic plastic component, dating from the late 1870s to present day, of which over half are connected with firearms.     

Interpreting the Ribchester Helmet

In 1796 a 13-year-old boy playing on wasteland behind his father’s house in Ribchester, Lancashire discovered an assemblage of over 30 Roman artefacts, including a decorated brass helmet. Although partially corroded the Ribchester helmet is a fine example of a first-century AD cavalry sports helmet. This article considers how the interpretation of the helmet has evolved since its discovery. The multi-faceted iconography of the helmet with its mural crown diadem is that of an elite soldier and is paralleled in other examples of cavalry sports helmets of the Ribchester type. The long-neglected imagery on the helmet bowl is reinterpreted and seen not as a haphazard collection of randomly placed combatants but as a highly structured, symmetrical composition specifically designed to be viewed from different directions.     

Metallic surface coatings on arms and armour: the role of X-ray fluorescence analysis

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a brief introduction to a scientific technique, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, which has been extensively used within the Royal Armouries Museum. Through the use of specific case studies it shows how such a technique can contribute in numerous ways to the understanding and care of the collection.     

The Production and Deposition of the Guisborough Helmet

In September 1878 the British Museum received a donation of a folded metal plate which had been embossed and gilded. Restoration of the object revealed that the folded plate was in fact the outer casing of a Roman copper alloy cavalry sports type helmet which dates to the late second or third century AD. The story of what became known as the Guisborough helmet began 14 years earlier in what was then the North Riding of Yorkshire when workers employed by the Cleveland Railway Company discovered a ‘very curious plate of metal’ during road construction. It appears that the helmet was deliberately prepared for deposition and buried at a depth of c30 cm close to a stream. Examination by the authors suggests that this was a high value item that had been repaired many times. Experimental evidence suggests that the decoration alone required approximately 16 h to fashion.     

The Armoury Gauging System and Interchangeable Manufacture

Abstract

Scientifically analysing important artefacts from the site of historic battles is vital if the best information is to be retrieved from the field. A detailed knowledge of the specific equipment that was available to the combatants from a known battle is also required at a high level so that artefacts and fragments resulting from an historic battlefield archaeological survey can be recognised when found. Access to specialists from all walks of life is required throughout each battlefield-related project, from the fieldwork stages to the dissemination of information. The following paper discusses the importance of working alongside museums and specialists and gives examples of how the Towton Battlefield Archaeology Project has successfully worked with the staff at the Royal Armouries Leeds.     

Claude Blair 1922–2010

Abstract

The historic displays at the Tower Armouries underwent two significant rearrangements during the nineteenth century. Undertaken by two noted antiquarian scholars, Dr Samuel Meyrick in 1826 and James Robertson Planché in 1868, the underlying circumstances that led up to these developments have not been fully considered; neither has the role played by the Storekeeper’s Department at the Tower in this process. Yet at precisely the same time as these changes were being made the Storekeeper’s Department was becoming more expert in its own collections, acquiring new objects, conducting research, and playing an active part in the scholarly and museological developments of Victorian Britain.     

New Light on the Simpson of York Gun

Abstract

New evidence is examined relating to the making of the Royal Armouries exquisitely decorated sporting gun by William Simpson of York, which has been said to be the finest English gun in existence. Simpson had moved from London to York by 1837 and it has been suggested that this gun was made by him for William Constable (who is known to have owned it) of Burton Constable Hall, near Hull, and indeed, that elements of its decoration were made to match that found on other items made for the Hall. However, it is shown that these apparent links are matters of chance and that this wonderful gun was, in fact, made as a marketing exercise to help Simpson establish himself in York. Advertisements in the York Courant in the summer of 1738 show that Simpson offered it as a raffle prize!     

基于图像和惯性的头盔组合跟踪原理

不同体制的头盔跟踪定位技术单独使用时都存在一定的原理性性能制约,提高跟踪定位技术整体性能的有效途径是采用组合跟踪。目前综合性能较好的是图像式头盔跟踪,图像式跟踪技术精度高,输出数据平稳,稳定性好,但其缺点是头盔活动范围受制于CCD摄像机视场及头盔大角度转动时头盔本身对CCD摄像机视角的遮挡。惯性跟踪不需要任何外来信息也不向外辐射任何信息,可在任何介质和任何环境条件下实现360°全范围头部跟踪,但其定位精度随时间下降。提出的基于图像和惯性的头盔组合跟踪技术充分利用图像跟踪精度高、长期稳定性好及惯性定位跟踪范围广、跟踪系统简单的优点,达到单个跟踪定位体制不具备的综合性能。     

The Maudslay Connection,the Reid Bequest and Forsyth’s Early Percussion Ignition Systems

Abstract

Neal and Back identify that, in 1808, Maudsley, of 78 Margaret Street, was appointed Primer Magazine Maker to the Forsyth Patent Gun Company. Blackmore confirms in a short entry in A Dictionary of London Gunmakers that Henry Maudslay/Maudsley supplied the company with magazine primers. Henry Maudslay was the most influential mechanical engineer of his generation and his factory formed the nursery for many later engineering greats. This connection between Alexander Forsyth and his new company with Maudslay and his company is therefore significant. Determining how these two giants may have interacted and how Maudslay may have influenced the design and manufacture of the new percussion ignition systems is of interest. This interest is increased when we read that Forsyth observes in one of his letters to James Brougham, the day-to-day manager of the business, that ‘Maudsley’s account is most unreasonable in every respect’. In order to understand where Maudslay may have influenced the design and the detail of their manufacture, it is necessary to examine the early evolution of Forsyth’s percussion ignition devices. These are primarily those of the Reid Bequest of 1929 held in the Royal Armouries and those collected by Colonel Colt. As it has been two hundred years since their original creation this requires careful object study to establish the chronology of the objects and obtain an insight into the relationship between Forsyth and Maudslay and their innovations.     

A Portrait of a Helmet: A Funerary Helmet from the Northern Netherlands

This paper describes a seventeeth-century helmet, which was found in a church in the Frisian village of Schettens. Not only the type, but also the context in which this helmet was found, made the find exceptional. The presence of tombstones in the church made it possible to trace the object to a Frisian colonel from the Dutch States Army. What makes the helmet even more special, is the fact that it was prominently depicted on the tombstone of the deceased Frisian colonel. The find of the helmet and its ‘portrait’ on the tombstone are unique for the northern Netherlands. It gives cause for further study of the Dutch funeral tradition, in which elements of armour played an important role. In this regard, it is very interesting to draw a comparison with the same tradition in England.