issue 04 (Low resolution) April 2010 (PDF, 1,4

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ISSUE 04 APRIL 2010
14
Armour
Acquisition
MAGAZINE
20
Remarkable Weapons:
Delft
28
Conflict of Interest:
NAM
44
Guns for George
Prince of Wales
ICOMAM – the International Committee of Museums of
Arms and Military History - is an International Committee of
ICOM – the International Council of Museums.
It provides a forum for museums worldwide:
• To encourage scientific research about arms and
armour and military collections, both in specialised and
general museums and in military collections.
• To stimulate a proper, professional standard of collection
care, management, conservation and use in line with
internationally recognised good practice and ICOM
guidelines.
• To promote the highest standards in display and
interpretation.
• To encourage networking and partnerships between
museums and research the world over.
ICOMAM achieves its goal by holding triennial
congresses and intermediate symposia on relevant topics.
ICOMAM has over 260 members, representing museums
in more than 50 countries world-wide, including such
famous institutions as the Royal Armouries of Leeds, the
French Musée de l'Armée, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
The Musée de l'Armée et d'Histoire Militaire in Brussels, the
Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer of Vienna, the Real Armeria of
Madrid, the Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Istanbul.
Membership has increased over the past ten years including
a larger share of museums outside of Europe and America.
Also some so-called Battlefield Museums are members of
this international contact group.
ICOMAM is directed by an International ruling body
called the Executive Board. The ICOMAM approach to the
conservation and study of relevant artefacts is scientific,
dispassionate, objective and humanistic. It aims to assess
the importance of weaponry in world history as a major
sociological phenomenon touching on all the aspects of
politics, economics and social behaviour including its
artistic spin-offs and its relationship with our cultural
heritage and its interpretation in the world today.
http://www.klm-mra.be/icomam/
© Individual authors, Institutions
and ICOMAM, 2010
Published by
in association with ICOMAM
Hawthorne Cottage
Moorfield Road
LEEDS
LS12 3SE
UK
smithbrown@basiliscoe.fsnet.co.uk
Design by Dazeye
ICOM is the international organisation of museums and
museum professionals which is committed to the
conservation, continuation and communication to society of
the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and
future, tangible and intangible.
http://icom.museum/
22
Welcome to the fourth issue of
the Magazine. Readers probably
don’t need to be reminded that
this year’s meeting takes place in
Dublin and will deal with
education in armies and in
military museums.
This got us to think about how
education, training and the
passing on of skills is something
which reflects all through our
subject, from how young curators
pick up their skills and
experiences, the joy of reading and
using textbooks and catalogues to
how young princes are trained in
the arts of war, almost straight
out of the nursery.
In addition we have a number
of more general themes which we
hope will intrigue, entertain and
educate you. That is what the
Magazine is for - to reflect the
experiences of our members and
disseminate their experiences.
Robert Douglas Smith
Ruth Rhynas Brown
EDITORS
26
29
Contents
News ......................04
Publications ............31
04 The re-opening of the Arms and
Armour Gallery at the Royal Military
Museum, Brussels
31 Building an arms and armour
library
06 News from the National Museum of
the United States Air Force
36 Justus Lipsius Award
Articles ...................38
07 The National Army Museum longlisted for Art Fund Prize 2010
38 Engineering a career
08 Knut Haugland and Petko Yotov
43 Teaching children about war
09 Claude Blair
47 Re-enactment and arms, armour
and military history
12 Conference 2009
14 Conference, Dublin, 2010
16 Acquisition of European horse
armour
20 Carolean cannon found in Bermuda
Exhibitions ..............22
22 Remarkable Weapons, Delft
24 Land Girls and Lumber Jills,
Edinburgh
49 An armet in the Legermuseum
50 ‘For the instruction and
amusement’:
guns for George, Prince of Wales
54 A 19th century Spanish shot bag in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art
55 Hermann Göring’s white summer
peaked cap
60 A 19th century recipe for the
prevention of rust
25 Álvarez de Castro y su tiempo
26 Art of the Samurai: Japanese Arms
and Armor, 1156-1868
28 Exhibitions at the Army Museum,
Stockholm
30 Conflicts of Interest: National Army
Museum
ISSUE 04 MAGAZINE 3
News
The re-opening of the Arms and Armour Gallery
at the Royal Military Museum, Brussels
Piet De Gryse
Curator, Royal Military Museum, Brussels.
I
n the fall of 2006 the Arms and Armour Gallery was closed
and the collection was withdrawn from public view. Many
objects needed restoration and the 20-year old display was
in need of refurbishment. The 25 January 2010 was
therefore an important day as the revamped gallery was
officially re-opened in the presence of Mr Pieter De Crem,
the Minister of Defence, and many guests..
The existing showcases have been retained but have
been repainted and fitted with new backgrounds. The
original yellow and orange furniture has been discarded in
favour of a more neutral colour scheme based on ivory and
pale green. The addition of large pedestals has allowed for a
more dynamic presentation.
The lighting system has also been renewed. The oldfashioned lighting system (with tubular lamps in white casings
and rails with spotlights) was replaced by black structures
recalling the dark showcase frames. Accent lighting was
added by adjustable and dimmable spotlights. This has
resulted in a much warmer ambiance with the ensemble
gaining in intimacy and the individual pieces in visibility.
The presentation system has also been given a face-lift.
With the experience gained from the set-up of other
galleries, preference once again went to supports fixed in
the rear walls, with the addition of modular braces, easily
adaptable both in height and length. Combined with special
brackets this made for an extremely flexible and
inconspicuous display system. The presentation of the
armours presented some specific problems. They were still
set up on old wooden figures, which proved to be more
4 MAGAZINE ISSUE 04
harmful than supporting, as they could no longer be
properly adjusted. In the months leading up to the final
installation, the Museum therefore experimented with a
number of self-designed modular metal busts, on which the
parts for the arms, shoulders, breast, back and thighs could
be individually fixed into position. The Museum’s metalworker (Karel Elsen) and its display specialist (Dirk Theunis)
built a prototype that eventually led to the construction of
twenty support busts, perfectly adaptable to the armour they
were meant to hold up. As this process was entirely
News
conducted within the Museum, we could be very particular
about technical requirements and materials used.
But, as already hinted at, the armours themselves also
needed conservation. Only a few still possessed their
original 16th or 17th century leathers. In many cases these
had been replaced in the 19th century by leather tanned
according to the 19th century methods, with techniques and
products leading to the infamous and feared leather rot. The
slightest pressure caused the leather to tear and break and
the armour was therefore literally falling to pieces. As the
Museum did not have the requisite skills, a specialized
restorer was called in. Robert Smith (formerly Head of
Conservation at the Royal Armouries in Leeds and London)
surveyed the collection and replaced the affected leather
with new neutral leather specially imported from France.
This however is uncoloured and the new pale straps now
take some getting used to. The old buckles and rivets have
been reused wherever possible.
The new display is, on the one hand, chronological and
on the other typological. In that way the visitor is presented
with a comprehensive overview of the warrior’s armament.
Attention is drawn to the evolution of hilted weapons
(swords, small-swords and rapiers), staff weapons (lances,
pikes, halberds, war scythes, spontoons), hand guns, early
artillery pieces and the different fire weapons with their
various firing mechanisms (matchlocks, wheellocks,
miquelet locks, flintlocks and the percussion system).
Through fourteen introductory texts the visitor is informed
about the evolution of armament.
At present only the first half of the gallery has been
refurbished and we are currently working on the renovation
of the remainder of the room. By 2012 we hope to present a
completely overhauled Arms and Armour Gallery. The first
step in this project has been realised with the assistance
and support of an entire team - we now continue in the
same spirit.
Translation by Diane Vanthemsche
ISSUE 04 MAGAZINE 5
News
News from the National Museum
of the United States Air Force
Dayton, Ohio
Doolittle Tokyo Raiders to be
honoured during free concert
17 April 2010
World War II Flight Nurses
exhibit now open at National
Museum of the US Air Force
T
A
he Doolittle Tokyo Raiders will be honoured in a special
way during their 68th reunion with a tribute concert
performed by the U.S. Air Force’s ‘Airmen of Note’ at Wright
State University’s Nutter Center on April 17 at 7:30 p.m. The
concert, which is free to the public, will feature patriotic and
WWII era music.
Created in 1950 to carry on the tradition of Major Glenn
Miller's Army Air Corps dance band, the “Airmen of Note”
features 18 of the most talented jazz musicians in the
country and is one of the last touring big bands. As a result,
they have earned an international reputation as one of the
finest and most versatile big bands of its kind in the world.
Now in their 60th year, the “Airmen of Note” have
presented their exciting brand of big band music to
audiences throughout the United States, dozens of countries
in Europe and Asia, as well as in their home area of
Washington, D.C. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. No tickets are
necessary and seating will be available on a first-come,
first-served basis.
Other events planned during what could possibly be the
Raiders’ last major public reunion include three autograph
sessions, a memorial service and a B-25 flyover at the
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. In addition, the
museum's Family Day programs will feature the Doolittle
Tokyo Raid, and the film "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," will be
shown in the museum's Carney Auditorium on April 17.
Fundraising efforts by the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders
Association, Inc. to fly in and land 25 B-25 Mitchell bombers
on the runway behind the museum continue. If their efforts
are successful, this aviation event would be the largest
gathering of B-25s since World War II. To date, 18 B-25
bombers have agreed to participate. Those interested in
helping to make this flight of B-25 bombers possible should
contact Tom Casey with the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders
Association, Inc. at (941) 921-7361 or by email at:
tomcat911@comcast.net.
On April 18, 1942, 80 men achieved the unimaginable when
they took off from an aircraft carrier on a top secret mission to
bomb Japan. These men, led by Lt. Col. James H. ‘Jimmy’
Doolittle, came to be known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.
Further information is available at
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/doolittle.asp.
6 MAGAZINE ISSUE 04
new exhibit focused on flight nurses during World War II
opened March 3 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air
Force. The Winged Angels: U.S. Army Air Forces Flight
Nurses in World War II exhibit, located in the museum’s Air
Power Gallery, tells the story of the 500 Army nurses who
served as members of 31 medical air evacuation transport
squadrons during the war. It highlights such women as 2nd
Lt. Elsie S. Ott, 1st Lt. Suella Bernard, 1st Lt. Aleda E. Lutz
and 1st Lt. Mary L. Hawkins..
‘From World War II to the present, an amazing and
interesting history illustrates the courage, professionalism
and dedication of our nursing personnel and a legacy that
endures today,’ said Maj. Gen. Kimberly A. Siniscalchi,
Assistant Air Force Surgeon General, Medical Force
Development and Nursing Services. ‘Our superb flight
nurses, technicians and critical care air transport teams
have rightfully earned the title “Angels of the Battlefield.”’
The exhibit includes several interesting artefacts, such as
an original flight nurse blue uniform and all four variations of
the flight nurse wings. Also on display are the uniform of Lt.
Bernard, who was the only nurse known to have participated
in a glider combat mission during WWII, and a flight jacket
that belonged to Lt. Hawkins, who received the
Distinguishing Flying Cross for her life-saving efforts caring
for 24 patients after surviving a crash-landing in a C-47.
‘These flight nurses were really part of a revolution in
military medical care,’ said Terry Aitken, the museum’s
senior curator. ‘The introduction of flight nurses and air
evacuation made it possible to save more lives than ever
before, and this exhibit allows us to share the rich story of
these brave women with our visitors. The flight nurses who
served during World War II established a standard that
continues today.’
The opening of Winged Angels at the start of Women’s
History Month gives museum visitors another chance to see
the contributions women have made to the Air Force over
the years. Other museum exhibits focused specifically on
women include the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
exhibit in the Air Power Gallery and a tribute dedicated to
flight nurse Mary Spivak, which will be part of the renovated
Korean War exhibit area.
More information about this exhibit is available at
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp
?id=15457.
News
Pilot honoured family
during Korean war
D
uring the Korean War, Thunderjet wing commander Col.
Joseph Davis Jr. displayed exceptional leadership by
personally leading many successful missions over North
Korea. By war’s end, he was the commander of all F-84
units stationed in Korea. Through the stresses of war,
however, Davis could always remember his family. He
named his F-84G Four Queens for his wife, Ann, and his
three daughters, Scott, Jan and Chris. Davis had four queen
playing cards painted on the left side of his aircraft to
represent a poker ‘four-of-kind’ hand. .
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the beginning
of the Korean War, the National Museum of the U.S. Air
Force is completely redesigning the Korean War section of
the Modern Flight Gallery where Davis’ story will be
highlighted not only because of an important strike Davis led
on July 27, 1953, the last day of the war, but also because of
the story behind the artwork on his brightly coloured
aircraft. The new exhibit area will open in June.
‘Col. Davis’ story is one that will resonate with many
museum visitors,’ said museum research historian Jeff
Duford. ‘The idea that he honored the four most important
people in his life with nose art on his plane is a theme
carried over from many airmen during World War II. It was a
constant reminder of who they were fighting for.’
Davis was a successful pilot during World War II and
Korea. Later in his career he came up with the revolutionary
concept of the laser-guided bomb and retired in 1969 with
over 10,000 hours of military flight time and many
decorations and awards.
‘The timeless story of an airman remembering a family
member in some way – through nose art, good luck charms,
pictures or other items – is displayed throughout all
galleries in the museum,’ Duford said. ‘Davis is just one
example of how vital family members are in support of
troops during war and peace.’
The F-84 is currently undergoing restoration in the
Restoration Hangar and visitors may see it during a Behind
the Scenes tour.
Further information about Davis and his F-84G will be
available on the museum’s Web site when the exhibit opens
this summer.
For information about Korean War commemoration
activities, visit
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/korea.asp.
The National Museum of the United States Air Force is
located on Springfield Street, six miles northeast of
downtown Dayton.
It is open 9am to 5pm seven days a week (closed
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day).
Admission and parking are free.
The National Army Museum long-listed
for £100,000 Art Fund Prize 2010
T
he National Army Museum in London is one of eleven
institutions long-listed for the £100,000 Art Fund Prize,
the UK’s largest single arts prize. The long list has been
selected by a panel of Judges chaired this year by
broadcaster Kirsty Young. Traditionally the long list
comprises ten, but for the 2010 Prize eleven institutions
have been nominated, attesting to the high quality and
volume of applications received.
The National Army Museum is nominated for Conflicts of
Interest, a new gallery exploring the impact of four decades
of conflict on British soldiers and civilians worldwide.
Opened in September 2009, the gallery examines the role of
the British Army in conflicts including Afghanistan, Iraq,
Northern Ireland, the Falklands and Kosovo as well as
pressing issues facing the military today. Conflicts of
Interest is a living exhibition, capturing history as it happens,
updated regularly by the Museum and incorporating daily
feedback and opinions of its visitors.
Of the nomination, Mairead O’Hara, Curator at the
National Army Museum said: ‘We are delighted to be
nominated for the Art Fund Prize. It was important for us to
create a gallery that examines contemporary conflicts from
many perspectives. The greatest challenge was to design a
living, evolving gallery that could reflect developments in the
stories of today’s soldiers. Judging by the public’s response,
Conflicts of Interest, has proved to be a vital space for the
discussion of contemporary conflicts.’
The £100,000 prize is awarded to the museum or gallery
for a project completed in the last year, that the Judges
deem demonstrates the most originality, imagination and
excellence. The Prize, which has been sponsored by the
UK’s leading independent art charity, The Art Fund, for three
years, aims to increase public appreciation and enjoyment
of the UK’s museums and galleries.
ISSUE 04 MAGAZINE 7
News
Knut Haugland
former Director of the Norges
Hjemmefrontmuseum
(Norwegian Resistance Museum)
B
efore he settled down into the comparatively quiet life as
Director of the Norwegian Resistance Museum, Knut
Haugland, who died on Christmas Day 2009, aged 92, had an
adventurous life, first in the Norwegian Resistance, and then
as part of the Kon-Tiki expedition. Few of today’s museum
directors would expect to find themselves on film; Haugland
played himself in the Oscar-winning documentary film on the
Kon-Tiki in 1950, while his wartime exploits were portrayed
fictionally in Hollywood’s The Heroes of Telemark (1965).
Knut Magne Haugland was born in 1917 at Rjukan,
Telemark. After studying radio communications with the
army, he was posted to Setermoen, in the far north in 1940
just at the time of the German invasion of Norway, in which
he took part in the fighting at Narvik. Later he moved to
Oslo, using the Høvding Radiofabrik factory as a cover for
work in the Norwegian resistance.
In August 1941 he was arrested by the Statspolitiet, but
escaped via Sweden to Britain where he joined the
Norwegian Independent Company, the Kompani Linge.
Haugland was selected by the Special Operations Executive
(SOE) for Operation Grouse, the raid on a hydroelectric
power station near his hometown, where the Allies
suspected that heavy water was being produced for atomic
weapons. He was parachuted into Hardangervidda in
October 1942 with three other resistance fighters to meet up
with the British operation Freshman, but the mission ended
in disastrous failure, and alerted the Germans to Allied
interest in heavy water production.
Haugland was to overwinter with the team in
Bulgarian Military Museum
Director, Petko Yotov, has died
T
he Director of the Bulgarian National Miltary History Museum
Petko Yotov passed away on 1 December 2009 at the age of 62.
Making the announcement, Marieta Staneva, the
museum’s press attachée, said: ‘We have lost the man who
warmed us with his smile. To him the museum was
vocation, and love, and self-devotion’.
‘As a long-standing director of the Military History
Museum, Colonel Yotov had a contribution of inestimable value
for reviving it - from a ruin, it turned into one of the leading
cultural institutions in the country,’ she added in her tribute.
Colonel Yotov was born on 2 September 1947 in Pleven.
He graduated from the Bulgarian Military Academy in 1976
and was the author of many articles and books on military
history. Later he spent 13 years as a professor at the
8 MAGAZINE ISSUE 04
Hardangervidda and keep radio contact with the British.
Three months Operation Gunnerside began when Norwegian
commandos parachuted in and rendezvoused with Haugland.
The plant was now heavily defended with mines and
floodlights and accessible only by a bridge over a deep
ravine. The Norwegians climbed down the ravine, through an
icy river and up the side. They followed a narrow-gauge
railway, entering through a cable tunnel and window. They
slipped away without firing a shot, after sabotage destroyed
hundreds of kilograms of heavy water. The German general
in Norway described the raid as ‘the finest coup of the war’.
Haugland subsequently returned to Oslo to train radio
operators for the Norwegian resistance until he narrowly
escaped capture in the unlikely surroundings of Oslo
Maternity Hospital when one of his transmitters was located
by a German radio direction finder. He was got safely to
Britain, not going back to Norway until the war ended.
Haugland had met Thor Heyerdahl in Britain and was
intrigued by his desire to sail across the Pacific on a balsawood raft, agreeing to be one of the radio operators aboard
the Kon-Tiki expedition. The adventure, in the finest tradition
of Norwegian exploration, gripped the imagination of the
post-war world.
Afterwards Haugland served in the Norwegian army in
Germany (1948-49), in the Ministry of Defence until 1952 and
then transferred to the Air Force. There he headed the
electronic eavesdropping service in Norway, an important
position during in Cold War Europe, holding the rank of
major and then lieutenant-colonel.
Haugland was director of the Norwegian Resistance
Museum from 1963 to 1983 and director of the Kon-Tiki
Museum from 1947 to 1990. He was twice awarded
Norway's highest decoration, the War Cross with Sword, and
was awarded the British DSO and MM, the French Croix de
Guerre and Légion d'Honneur, and, postwar, the Royal
Norwegian Order of St Olav.
Airforce School in Dolna Mitropolia and at the
‘G.S.Rakovsky’ Military Academy in Sofia. He became
Director of the Military History Museum in 1989.
‘He educated in a spirit of esteem and respect for
military glory. There was no parade or a military ceremony
that would be done without his participation’, Marieta
Staneva stated. (Photo by BGNES)
News
Remembering Claude Blair
Tobias Capwell
Curator of Arms and Armour, The Wallace Collection
C
laude Blair’s seminal work European Armour (1958)
was the first book on armour I ever read. I think I must
have been about thirteen when I found it quite by chance in
the stacks of the Seattle Public Library. I had been
interested in arms and armour long before that, but for an
American kid growing up in the north-western United
States, several thousand miles away from the nearest
museum collection, it was a surprisingly difficult thing to
study. The internet did not exist in the 1980s, and most of
the important works were already out-of-print and almost
impossible to find. Coming across Claude’s book was thus a
bit like stumbling onto a six-lane motorway after having
blundered along dirt roads and deer tracks all one’s life. For
me, discovering this book was the point at which arms and
armour really began.
As an undergraduate I started to encounter Claude’s
other famous works, including European and American
Arms (1962) and Arms, Armour and Base-metal Work: The
James A. De Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor
(1974). The resources of a University introduced me to his
seeming constant presence in the periodical literature, and
to his fearsome reputation. This seemed to be someone who
said and wrote what he thought- Claude’s forthright manner
came through loud and clear, especially in printed
discussions, sometimes quite heated, with colleagues with
whom Claude disagreed. It however seems wrong to call
Claude blunt - in fact his comments were always razorsharp, and therefore they were also sometimes, inevitably,
cutting. Yet what always came through was how
passionately he cared about the subject of arms and
armour, how strongly he felt that it should be respected and
taken seriously as an area of art-historical scholarship.
Long before I had ever met him, Claude had taught me
that scholars must be defenders of and advocates for
their subject.
‘Mr. Blair I’m sorry to bother you again…’
‘Toby you really must stop calling me “Mr. Blair.”’
‘Yes Claude’.
I think I met Claude for the first time at one of the Park
Lane Arms Fairs in the late 1990s, perhaps 1997 or 1998. I
remember him responding, to my brief and somewhat
awkward explanation of my interest in 15th century armour,
with an enquiry as to whether I was aware of certain
essential written and iconographic sources. I had to admit
that I was not, and made careful mental notes to look up
what he had referred to. I believe I am not the only one who
has had this experience with Claude. He had an
extraordinary ability to intuit what you needed to know, but
did not. I think that it was in fact quite a rare thing for
Claude to mention something that I already knew about. As
my own knowledge grew, Claude’s references just got more
and more esoteric. It is important to stress that this never
seemed to be about ‘putting the boy in his place’. He just
knew when you were ready to go somewhere more difficult
or more complicated, and then opened the door.
During my graduate studies at the University of
Manchester I decided to make an attempt to write an article
for publication. It was recommended to me that I send it to
Claude for comment before submission. By this time I was
Claude Blair with his wife Joan
ISSUE 04 MAGAZINE 9
News
Claude talking to Norris Kennard
fully aware of how hard Claude could be in his critiques of
others’ work. I’d heard people joke that you could not
mature as an arms and armour specialist until you had
been ‘savaged’ by Claude. I did not want to be savaged. Not
even a little. Despite the fact that it might potentially be
good for me. It did not take long to realise however that it
would be better to have Claude’s comments before
publication rather than after, when I would get them anyway.
So I sent the article to him.
A very short time later, no more than a week in fact, a
letter arrived under my door. From Claude. Clearly there
was only a single sheet inside. This could not be good. I
didn’t open it. Well, not for about forty minutes anyway. That
was about how long I had to stare at the envelope before
mustering the courage to break the seal.
To my astonishment it was one of the nicest letters I
have ever received. Claude said he had enjoyed the article
and that I should be proud of it. He made a few suggestions
for additional references and that was it. Although it was a
fairly brief and straightforward note, it had a profound effect.
After reading it a few times I had the sense that I really
could work in this field, if I kept my eyes open and paid
attention to the little details. It was then that I committed
myself fully to the study of arms and armour. I don’t think
Claude could have known what this short, polite letter
meant to me. Now I wish I’d told him.
I don’t want to give the reader the impression that I was
especially close to Claude, or that I knew him particularly
well. I did not. I am one of a very large number of people
who Claude has supported and encouraged in their
struggles to carve out careers as curators, conservators and
art historians. Yet even though I was one of a great many, on
those few occasions when Claude and I did meet, he always
showed a great attentiveness and interest in whatever I had
to ask him. His insatiable curiosity about the world and what
10 MAGAZINE ISSUE 04
was going on in it was perhaps the most obvious quality of
the Claude that I knew. And although as I said I was not
always in close contact with him, Claude had this habit of
showing up at crucial times and playing a key role in one
way or another- not necessarily in person, sometimes at a
distance (temporal or geographical) but always there,
somewhere.
After I had finished my Ph.D (the subject of which had
been inspired by a number of photographs I found in the
Royal Armouries image archive, which I later discovered to
have been Claude’s own) I took up the post of Curator of the
arms and armour collection in Glasgow. My first major
assignment in that role was the acquisition of the
reinforcing breastplate or plackart of exchange belonging to
the Greenwich field armour made in the 1550s for Sir
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. This plackart was
the only major piece missing from what was otherwise one
of the most complete Greenwich garnitures in the world, the
only one to retain its complete horse armour, and an
extremely rare example of ‘Middle Period’ Greenwich work.
The plackart had first surfaced in the 1980s, and had
remained unidentified for some time, covered as it had been
in thick black paint. Then in the mid-1990s its owner took it,
by now stripped of its paint, to a lunch where he asked
Claude if he could say anything about it. Claude, typically,
responded with a statement that began something like ‘Well
I can’t tell you very much about it, but…’ This qualifier was
followed by the identification of the armour it belonged to,
its date, its maker, its original owner with comments on that
person’s life and career, the other pieces’ current location,
and a few points about the unique qualities of the
decoration. Fundamentally, Claude stressed to the owner
the crucial importance of reuniting the piece with the
armour to which it belonged. It is to the owner’s credit that
he then took Claude’s advice to heart and refused to sell the
piece to anyone else, despite the fact that it then took nearly
ten years before Glasgow Museums could raise the money
for its acquisition. I worked solidly for over a year to
complete the purchase, with, I might add, quite a number of
encouraging phone calls from Claude along the way. Claude
also took the time to write a very detailed statement of the
piece’s significance to help me in my efforts to secure
several different grants. The plackart and its armour,
separated probably since the seventeenth century, were
reunited in 2004, due largely to Claude’s efforts, sustained
over the course of a decade, promoting its importance,
keeping the project alive while Glasgow was without an
arms and armour curator for a number of years, and
making sure that the endgame finally played itself out
successfully.
About a year later Claude brought up the subject of a
revised addition of his book European Armour. I remember
he called me while I was working in the Glasgow Museums
arms and armour stores. He told me that his 1958 book had
been due for revision for a very long time, but he’d never had
the time to do it, and now, almost fifty years later, it really
News
had to be done, and would I like to work on it? Slightly
stunned and confused I said that I would of course help
him with the project in whatever way I could. That made
Claude laugh.
‘No, you are misunderstanding me.
I don’t want your help. I want you to do it.’
Not long after that the new post of Curator of Arms and
Armour was created at the Wallace Collection in London.
Claude asked me if I was going to apply. It hadn’t occurred
to me. I was settled in Glasgow, rapidly putting down roots,
and the idea of pulling everything up just like that and
moving south hadn’t seemed realistic. Claude said he
thought I should consider it.
When I had considered it and decided to go for it, Claude
said no, he couldn’t write a letter of recommendation for
me, as he would be sitting on the interview panel.
I’ve been Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace
Collection for three and a half years.
After moving to the Capital I tried to maintain a more
regular contact with Claude, visiting him at his home
occasionally to discuss my work on European Armour
(which was slowly gathering pace), goings-on at the Wallace
Collection, and so forth. However I was very conscious of the
fact that Claude still had a lot of work to do, most notably
the completion of his study of the so-called ‘Almain Album’,
the series of watercolour illustrations, now in the collection
of the V&A, that record many of the finest products of the
Greenwich royal workshop. I didn’t want to take up his time,
which was terribly precious. Yet I remember being struck by
how proficient Claude was in keeping up with his e-mail
correspondence (despite the fact that, I suspect, his inbox
was constantly overflowing with new
messages), and how skilled he was in
conducting research on the internet. I do
not think it is that outrageously unfair to
suggest that the habit of the younger
generations, to take computer illiteracy in
older generations for granted, does have
some basis in reality. But such a prejudice
collapsed utterly in Claude’s presence.
I will always remember my shock when,
in I think 2007, Claude showed me recent
images of the lost Wartburg Collection
which he had discovered on the web. The
Wartburg, a castle perched four hundred
metres above the town of Eisenach in
Thuringia (now a UNESCO World Heritage
site) once contained a spectacular
armoury, which included an exceptionally
important equestrian armour by Kunz
Lochner of Nuremberg. The armoury was looted by the
Soviet army in 1946 and had for the most part never been
seen or heard of since (though a small number of pieces
were later returned). Now here was the lost armoury, on a
little computer screen buried under mountains of files,
papers and photographs in Claude’s study.
‘You don’t think this is important?’
‘Claude, I’m having trouble understanding
what I am looking at.’
‘It’s the Wartburg Collection!’
‘Yes, but but…’
‘It’s in St Petersburg. In some new museum.’
I had just finished my first phase of revision of European
Armour when I learned of Claude’s death. I’m still having a
hard time with the idea that he is gone. His number is still
on my phone. I still have a list of questions on my laptop for
him about my work on his book, organised by chapter. I still
have e-mails from him in my inbox. There is a pile in my
study at home of off-prints and articles he gave me that I
still haven’t filed. Its hard to fully realise that he’s gone. He’s
always been there.
I learned from his obituary in The Guardian that in his
lifetime he authored over two hundred books and articles. I
know I have not read all of them, or even most of them, and
I think there are probably very few people who have. I will
find comfort in the idea that I will be continuing to discover
for myself ‘new’ Blair writings for a very long time. If a
person can live on in a way through their work, then Claude
will live on in our files, inside our notebooks, on our
bookshelves, and in ourselves.
Claude with, from the left, Ted Smith,
Fred Wilkinson and Alan Borg
ISSUE 04 MAGAZINE 11
News
Conference 2009
Above left: Jan Piet Puype opens the lecture programme
Above: Enjoying the hospitality of the city of Leeds in the Town Hall
Left: Delegates watching the tournament at the Royal Armouries
Below left: Thom Richardson leading a tour behind the scenes of
the museum
Below: Christian Ortner and Jan Piet Puype enjoying the splendid
surroundings of the Mansion House in York
News
Above left: A well-earned rest outside the Yorkshire
Museum
Above: Lar Joye and Philip Lankester in the Castle
Museum, York, enjoying a refreshment after a hard
day of study
Left: Walking the walls of York
Below: Delegates outside the Royal Armouries
News
ICOMAM 2010
Conference
Dublin, Ireland
13 – 17 June 2010
T
he conference will cover the best practice for education
in military and arms museums examining the latest
approaches in museums around the world. It will also
examine preparation for war and the training of soldiers in
the use of weapons.
As well as the regular lecture sessions there will be
visits to Dublin Castle, Trinity College, Killainham Jail and
the site of the Battle of the Boyne.
Dublin is the capital city of the Republic of Ireland and is
a popular tourist destination so this year’s ICOMAM
conference will be the perfect opportunity to combine
business with pleasure. The airport, which has flights from
the USA, UK and Europe, is only 8km from the city centre
and easily accessible by bus and taxi. Dublin is a compact
city with everything within walking distance. We will of
course be providing a conference hotel but there are
approximately 17,000 hotel rooms in Dublin including well
established international and national brands.
The city is renowned for its excellent cuisine and great
variety of restaurants to suit all budgets and tastes. At night
News
there is a superb range of entertainment, from Irish
traditional bands and dancing to harpists, classical singing,
opera and so much more. Dublin is a literary city steeped in
history and culture and 16 June is Bloomsday when
Dubliners commemorate the life of James Joyce and relive
the events of his novel Ulysses.
Outside Dublin Ireland is a small country with a vast
array of scenery and thousands of years of heritage and we
are currently preparing a post conference tour, as well as a
partner’s programme. Ireland is part of the Euro zone and
English speaking. In a global quality of life audit The
Economist magazine declared Ireland the number one place
to live and the Irish people are famous for being hospitable,
warm, witty, approachable, full of humour and ready to
welcome you.
For further details see:
http://www.klm-mra.be/icomam/icomam/dublin2010
News
Acquisition of European
horse armour
Horse Armour of Duke Ulrich of Württemberg,
Wilhelm von Worms the Elder, Nuremberg, 1507.
Man Armour, Matthes Deutsch, Landshut, circa
1505. Philadelphia Museum of Art, acc. 2009117-1,2. Gift of Athena and Nicholas Karabots
and The Karabots Foundation, 2009
P
eter Finer is proud and delighted to announce the
important sale to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, of
one of the last complete European horse armours to have
remained in private hands, accompanied by an imposing
armour for man. The early Renaissance horse armour and
man armour were once part of the collection of the Counts
Breuner-Enckevoirt and subsequently of the Dukes of
Ratibor at Schloss Grafenegg in Austria, where they were
exhibited together as a complete equestrian figure. In 1933
they were sold to the newspaper magnate William Randolph
Hearst who, confronted with financial difficulties,
subsequently sold them, thereafter the ensemble remained
in private hands until we purchased them in 2008.
Created in 1507 by Wilhelm von Worms the Elder, the
most famous Nuremberg armourer of his day, and entirely
made of steel plates enriched with delicately etched and
gilded figures of a dragon and noblewomen, this
monumental horse armour is the only example to have
become available in 45 years, and one of only a handful in
existence to be of such an early date. The man armour,
created around 1505 by the armourer Matthes Deutsch in
News
Landshut, is one of under a dozen complete, or near
complete field armours of that period to have survived. It is
Deutsch’s latest known work, and his most richly decorated.
The horse armour was originally made for Ulrich of
Württemberg (1487-1550), a German Duke who became
famous for his military achievements, impetuousness, and
controversial public and personal affairs. In 1498 he had
been betrothed to the six-year-old niece of the Holy Roman
Emperor Maximilian I of Austria and, amid many twists of
fortune, would later align himself with Martin Luther to
expand the reach of the Protestant Reformation. It was
commissioned in the year when Duke Ulrich was preparing
to ride among other German princes to attend the coronation
of Maximilian I in Rome. Although the trip was aborted and
Maximilian instead took the title of Emperor Elect in Trient in
1508, Ulrich conceivably used the horse armour to march
into France at the head of an imperial army in 1513.
The horse armour consists of head, neck, chest, and
hindquarter defences. Both head and neck sections evoke a
dragon. The main edges of the steel plates are bordered by
delicate etched and gilded foliage, and some plates are
further decorated with etched and gilded figures of richlydressed noblewomen holding banners inscribed with Duke
Ulrich’s motto. The main plate of the head defence is etched
and gilded with an impressive winged dragon, and the
escutcheon on the forehead with a noblewoman’s figure.
The armour was purchased by the Philadelphia Museum
of Art thanks to the generous gift made by the
philanthropists, Athena and Nicholas Karabots, and the
Karabots Foundation. Pierre Terjanian, the Museum’s J. J.
Medveckis Associate Curator for Arms and Armor, said of
the armour; ‘The exquisite decoration amply demonstrates
the gradual and complex shift from the late Gothic to the
early Renaissance styles in the German-speaking lands.’
News
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art
museums in the United States, showcasing more than 2,000
years of exceptional human creativity in masterpieces of
painting, sculpture, works on paper, decorative arts and
architectural settings from Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Officials said that acquisition of horse armour has been a
museum goal since the days of Fiske Kimball, who presided
over the museum when it first opened in its current location
at the end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 1928.
Museum director and chief executive Timothy Rub said
‘The museum has always wanted to have an extraordinary
horse armor to augment our holdings of European arms and
armor, but finding one has been an especially elusive quest,
given the exceptional rarity of this type of object’. The item
will be showcased at the centre of the Museum’s renowned
Kretzchmar von Kienbusch Galleries of Arms and Armor.
He added, ‘This is the only surviving early 16th-century
complete horse armor to have been made in Nuremberg,
and the only known example made by Wilhelm von Worms.
In conception and execution its decoration is without equal
among all other surviving man and horse armors. They
doubtlessly are the work of a prominent Nuremberg
graphic artist.’
Duke Ulrich of Württemberg
Born in 1487 in Reichenweier, Alsace, he succeeded in title
to his uncle, Duke Eberhard II of Württemberg, in 1498, but
began his personal rule only in 1503 when he was sixteen.
Duke Ulrich earned immediate military fame and expanded
his dominions at the expense of the Prince Elector Ruprecht
of the Palatinate, through his active and successful
participation in the so-called Landshut War of Succession in
1504. Betrothed in 1498 to Sabina of Bavaria, the six-year
old niece of the King of the Romans Maximilian I of Austria,
Duke Ulrich married her in 1511 with great pomp. This
marriage was an unhappy one, however. The Duke
apparently formed a relationship with the wife of one of his
leading courtiers, and killed her husband during a hunting
party in 1515. The Duke’s wife fled to the court of her
brother, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria. It was he who headed
the troops of the Swabian League that invaded Duke Ulrich’s
lands in retaliation for his occupation of the free imperial
city of Reutlingen in 1519. From that time until 1534 Duke
Ulrich lived in exile. He offered his services to King Francis I
of France, and with the assistance of the Swiss attempted to
recapture his lands, which had been mortgaged to the
Hapsburgs. With the help of his cousin, the Landgrave Philip
of Hesse, he was able to march into Württtemberg and
defeat the troops of the Hapsburgs’ military governor at
Lauffen in 1534. He immediately introduced the religious
Reformation advocated by Martin Luther into his lands and
relentlessly fortified these against possible invasions. Duke
Ulrich was one of the leading German Protestant Princes in
the Smalkaldic league formed against the Emperor Charles
V of Austria and his Catholic allies. Following the League’s
defeat in 1547, Duke Ulrich was to pay a hefty fine to the
Emperor. However, he died shortly thereafter, in 1550.
Though raised as a Catholic at the Hapsburg Court, his son
and successor, Christoph, continued the religious
Reformation in Württemberg.
At the moment when Duke Ulrich was planning to ride,
along with other German princes, with Maximilian I of
Austria to Rome, where Maximilian was to be crowned Holy
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Roman Emperor by Pope Julius II, Maximilian was trying to
secure funds and troops to enter hostile territories in
northern Italy, held by the French or in the hands of the
Republic Venice. Because of insufficient resources and
Venice’s fierce opposition to his plans, Maximilian never went
to Rome and took the title of Holy Roman Emperor in
Trient/Trento in 1508. It is conceivable that Duke Ulrich
commissioned this lavish horse armour to accompany
Maximilian to Rome, and that he might have used it when he
marched at the head of an imperial army into France in 1513.
At the end of the 16th century Duke Ulrich already
ranked among the great, memorable figures of his day.
Significantly, Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol requested one of
his armours for the great ‘armoury of heroes’ that he
formed at Ambras Castle in Tyrol.
The decoration of the horse armour
The technique used for the decoration, known by its German
name Goldschmelz, was favoured in the German-speaking
lands about 1490 through 1530, and briefly again around
1600. The process combines shallow etching (the
impression of designs into metal surfaces with the help of
acid), fire-gilding (the application of gold with the help of
copper, mercury, and heat), careful burnishing (gentle
polishing to create even, smooth surfaces), and fire-bluing
(the oxidation of steel surfaces to a blue/black sheen with
the help of heat). This singular technique—generally
restricted to luxury armours and edged weapons—allowed
for the creation of uniquely smooth, painterly
ornamentation, in contrast to the more standard form of
etching that left discernible recesses in the metal.
The armourers
Wilhelm von Worms the Elder (active Nuremberg, master in
1499, died 1538), who made this horse armour, was a highly
regarded armourer working in Nuremberg, one of Europe’s
leading centres of armour manufacture in the sixteenth
century. His distinguished clientele included many German
princes, including Margrave Friedrich V of BrandenburgAnsbach (1460–1536) and Duke Albrecht of Prussia
(1490–1568). Duke Ulrich of Württemberg (1487–1550), for
whom he made this horse armour, often used his services.
Von Worms’ standing was such that in 1527 he was admitted
into the greater municipal council of Nuremberg, an honour
bestowed only to a select few craftsmen. His other key
works are preserved in the Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and the Germanisches
Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.
Matthes Deutsch (active Landshut, recorded from 1485,
last documented c. 1505), who made the man armour, was
another distinguished German master armourer. Active in
Landshut, where the dukes of Bavaria commissioned much
of their personal armour, he worked for other German
courts, including that those of the Princes Electors Friedrich
III and Johann of Saxony (1463–1525, and 1468–1532,
respectively). His surviving works are of consistently high
quality, though generally undecorated. His other key works
are preserved in the Hofjagd-und Rüstkammer and Schloss
Ambras, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Rüstkammer,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden; Musée de l’Armée,
Paris; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
For further information contact Peter Finer
Telephone (+44) (0) 1608 682267
From US or Canada 1800 270 7951
Email: pf@peterfiner.com
News
Carolean cannon found in Bermuda
Dr Edward Harris MBE, JP, FSA
Executive Director, National Museum of Bermuda
T
he English settled Bermuda in 1612 as an offshoot of the
establishment in 1607 of the colony at Jamestown,
Virginia, on the American mainland, by the private
corporation, the Virginia Company. The island remained a
‘company town’ until the dissolution of the Bermuda
Company in 1684, when the British Government assumed
the administration of the place, though a Parliament (one of
the oldest in the world) was established in 1620. Famous in
the eighteenth century for its fast Bermuda Sloops, powered
by the fore-and-aft Bermuda Rig, the island came into focus
for the British military at the end of the American Revolution
in 1783.
Having lost the significant harbours of what became the
east coast of the United States of America, the Admiralty
warmed to the fact that Bermuda was conveniently situated
in the Western North Atlantic halfway between Canada and
the British West Indies, a ideal location for a naval base.
Royal Engineers and hydrographers were sent to the island
to assess the potential for its defence and to locate ship
channels through its extensive reefs.
By 1800, Captain Thomas Hurd, RN, had completed its
survey of the reefs, a chart now considered to be one of the
heritage masterpieces of the Hydrographic Office, and under
Captain Andrew Durnford, RE, the first phase of the
rearmament of Bermuda began in the 1790s. Finally, in
1809, the great dockyard was started on Ireland Island,
which is on the western extremity of Bermuda. It was thus
Bermuda Dockyard including National Museum from the North
in 2009.
from Bermuda, with the fleets of the Royal Navy on the
North America and West Indies Station centred there, that
Britain through its military might on the high seas sought to
contain the United States and its coming navy throughout
the nineteenth century.
The dockyard defences would eventually encompass
some fifteen acres of ramparts and grounds, constructed in
the bastioned trace, which would surround the naval base
on three sides, being open to the east where the fleets lay at
anchor in Grassy Bay. There were nine Bastions, later
identified as ‘A’ through ‘I’, some of which contained guns
mounted on carriages on elevated slides. The recoil of the
guns was partly taken up by obsolete cannon (buried to
within a foot or so of the muzzle) via a spike inserted into the
barrel and connected to the slide.
In September 2009,volunteers of the National Museum
of Bermuda (formerly the Maritime Museum) found such a
pivot in clearance work at Bastion ‘I’, the Museum
comprising, as of December 2009, all the fortifications of the
Dockyard and historic buildings within. The gun was
investigated by machine excavation and it was decided to
move it to the Museum’s conservation laboratory, because
of its apparent early age. Upon cleaning, the ‘Tudor Rose
and Crown’ Royal Cypher and the initials C and R, for
News
Bastion ‘I’ of the Bermuda Dockyard defences (upper left) from the
air in 2007.
Charles Rex were found. The number 24 was cut into the
gun on the side of the barrel below the initial C.
According to Charles Trollope of the United Kingdom,
‘the gun is a Demi-Culverin Drake (firing a 9-pound
cannonball) of 8 foot and is one of either 8 guns cast in 1637
or 2 cast in 1640. The term ‘Drake’ refers to the shape of the
chamber, which is in the form of a truncated cone. The
shape of the button and the indented ring at the end of the
second reinforce identify the caster as John Brown. The
weight will be about 17-3-00 and the gun cast of ‘Fine
Metal’. I am only aware of Charles I guns having the addition
of C R to the Rose and Crown.’
‘The Number 24 refers to the gun’s position in the ship’s
battery, so the vessel was of some size. The most likely ship
is HMS Lion (42 guns) rebuilt and enlarged in 1640 and
therefore needing a few extra guns. So far the Bermuda
Charles I gun is the first to come to light that was cast in
Fine Metal, but never say never!’
Bermuda possess upwards of 150 pieces of historic
artillery, as well as a number of guns used as bollards or
pivots for later guns. In the case of the recently discovered
Carolean gun, the other parts of its emplacement, made in
the early 1840s had been destroyed and thus it was decided
to excavate and remove the cannon itself for study. Due to its
rarity and age, the gun will now be placed indoors
permanently for its preservation, out of the deleterious saltladen Bermuda atmosphere. Consideration is being given to
the casting of replicas of the muzzle half of a cannon, so that
in the case of future removals of weapons from their historic
context, a replica would be placed in the ground to preserve
the visual nature of that context, while the historic guns
themselves would be place on exhibit under cover. The island
The Carolean gun in situ at Bastion ‘I’, prior to removal in
August 2009.
Tudor Rose and Crown flanked by the initials C R; drawing of
Charles I Royal Cypher inset
also had over 90 forts over a 340-year period, of which some
are now part of Bermuda’s World Heritage Site. For a mere
20 square miles, Bermuda thus has some extremely
significant military heritage, which the National Museum of
Bermuda has done much to illuminate, restore and act as an
advocate for its preservation island-wide, since its founding
as the Bermuda Maritime Museum in 1974.
Exhibitions
Remarkable weapons.
The Army Museum’s
special collection of
firearms
The Army Museum, Delft,
The Netherlands
18 March to 31 October 2010
E
ven James Bond could learn a thing or two from the
remarkable firearms that are on display at the Army
Museum from 18 March. The exhibition presents an
overview of the most remarkable firearms in the museum’s
collection, some of which are being exhibited for the first
time ever. Various ‘hidden’ weapons will be on display, such
Exhibitions
as a pen, a walking stick and a belt buckle, as well as
weapons that belonged to celebrities or were used
during key events in national history, such as those
used by Prince Bernhard and General Snijders, a rifle
used by the Moluccans who hijacked the train near
Wijster in 1975, and weapons made by Cadillac,
Siemens, Brabantia and other such companies.
Most of the 100 or so firearms on show were
made in the 20th and 21st centuries, often fitted with
the latest in technical and state-of-the-art functions.
But the exhibition also includes several 19th-century
weapons, such as a walking stick that was
supposedly used in an assassination attempt on
French King Louis-Philippe in 1836. Several
extraordinary objects are also showcased, among
them the smallest, the largest and the flattest pistol
in the world, a double-barrelled revolver with 20
cartridges, a signal pistol-cum-grenade launcher,
weapons hidden in a pen, the ingenious weapons
used by snipers, and some weapons with
exceptionally beautiful decorations. The very latest
infantry rifle, which will shortly be put to use by the
Dutch army, is also on display here for the first time.
The exhibition Remarkable Weapons is at the Army
Museum in Delft, The Netherlands and runs from
18 March to 31 October.
More information at www.legermuseum.nl
Exhibitions
Land Girls and Lumber Jills
National War Museum, Edinburgh Castle
26 February 2010 – February 2011
well as unfamiliar faces, surroundings and jobs. Many had
swapped their town life for the countryside, which was a shock
to some but healthy outdoor fun for others. Many marriages
were made when Land Girls met future husbands on the farm
or Timber Jills found romance with forestry colleagues who
came from abroad to assist with the war effort.
The vital hard work and commitment of these women
was publicly recognised in 2008 when they were issued with
a medal and a certificate of thanks from Prime Minister
Gordon Brown.
A
n exhibition highlighting the vital contribution of the
Scottish Women’s Land Army and the Women’s Timber
Corps opened in February 2010 at the National War
Museum, Edinburgh
The two organisations were formed in 1917 to help meet
growing demands for home production during the long
struggle of World War I, and were active in both World Wars.
Curator Elaine Edwards said:
Land Girls and Timber Jills played a critical role in
fighting the war on the home front, by providing essential
supplies of home-grown food as well as wood for use in
everything from railway sleepers to pit props. This exhibition
highlights their important contribution to the war effort as
well as the reality of their day-to-day lives.
Land girls took on all types of agricultural work from
sowing to harvesting and calving to shearing, whilst the
Women’s Timber Corps worked in the forests supplying
wood. Some volunteered while others were conscripted, as
by 1941 all women under the age of 60, without children
under 14, could be called up for essential war work.
Visitors to the exhibition can see a selection of colourful
wartime recruitment posters, discover the history of the two
organisations and learn first-hand about the experiences of
three Land Army girls and a Timber Jill.
Objects on display will include a Land Army dress
uniform and a milking jacket, a selection of working tools
and one of the medals recently awarded by the British
Government. The objects will be brought to life through the
use of personal testimonies, audio recordings and period
film footage.
Girls who joined were often very young and away from
home for the first time, so they experienced homesickness as
The exhibition is free with admission to Edinburgh Castle.
Castle admission prices are currently Adult £11.00, Child
£5.50, Concessions £8.00, Child under 5 free.
National War Museum Scotland opening times
Monday to Sunday 9.30am to 5pm (1 Oct to 31 Mar);
9.30am to 6.00pm (1 Apr to 30 Sep)
Exhibitions
Álvarez de Castro y su
tiempo (1749-1810)
Castillo de San Fernando de
Figueres, Sala Martín Zermeño
26 marzo – 18 junio 2010
M
ariano Álvarez de Castro es uno de los generales
españoles más conocidos de la Guerra de la
Independencia (1808-1814). Su actuación en la defensa de
Gerona durante el largo asedio que sufrió ante las fuerzas
napoleónicas le elevó a la calidad de héroe y como tal ha
sido tratado, de forma casi unánime, por la posterior
historiografía. El día 21 de enero de 1810, el general Álvarez
de Castro fallecía en las cuadras del Castillo de San
Fernando de Figueres, lugar donde había sido recluido por
las autoridades francesas a la espera de ser enjuiciado por
alta traición al rey José Bonaparte.
Con ocasión del segundo centenario de este evento, la
Subdirección General de Patrimonio Histórico-Artístico del
Ministerio de Defensa ha proyectado en el Castillo de San
Fernando una exposición que pretende recordar la figura del
general granadino, encuadrándola en su contexto histórico y
repasando los episodios militares en los que participó
durante el último tercio del siglo XVIII y la primera década
del XIX.
Esta exposición, que cuenta con dos importantes lienzos
del Museo Nacional del Prado relacionados con Álvarez de
Castro, constituye, además, el primer evento cultural
directamente vinculado al futuro Museo Militar que se tiene
previsto instalar próximamente en un edificio de esta
fortaleza ampurdanesa, el más imponente ejemplo de las
construcciones realizadas por los ingenieros militares a lo
largo del siglo XVIII que jalonan el territorio catalán.
ENTRADA GRATUITA
Horario de apertura
Laborables y festivos: 10:30-14:30
Semana Santa (Del 30 de marzo al 4 de abril): 10:3018:30
Exhibitions
Art of the Samurai:
Japanese Arms and
Armor, 1156-1868
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10028-0198
T
he Samurai exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York closed in January after an extremely
successful run - the final attendance was 187,064 visitors.
The exhibition catalogue is still available for purchase both
from the Museum and from Yale University Press.
Above. The first gallery showing Japanese blades from the 5th to
13th century, a 6th century terracotta figure (haniwa), and a 12th
century armour (yoroi).
Below left. A sword mounting from the 14th century and wall
graphics explaining the terminology and parts of Japanese blades,
fittings, and mounts.
Below right. An ancillary installation showing a selection of
Japanese arms and armour from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's
permanent collection which were conserved and restored in Japan.
Exhibitions
Above. Armour, blades, mountings,
fittings, a lacquered saddle and stirrups,
portrait scrolls, and costume dating from
the 14th to 16th century.
Left. Team Samurai. Staff from
Design, Editorial, Registrar's Office,
Japanese couriers, and the staff of the
Arms and Armor Department exhausted
but happy at the completion of the first
installation.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions at the Army Museum, Stockholm
Miss Landmine,
Cambodia 2009
O
n 8 March we opened the Miss
Landmine exhibition. This is a
project run by the Norwegian
artist Morten Traavik. 20 women,
of various ages are pictured as
beauty queens. They have lost
parts of their bodies and they are
pictured as survivors. Everyone
has the right to be beautiful is the
message. At the official Miss
Landmine website we can read
‘For reasons of security we have
been waiting a while with sharing
this information, but we now
regard it as safe enough for all
parties involved to happily
announce that on 4 December,
Dos Sopheap (19) was crowned
Miss Landmine 2009 in a secret
ceremony inside Cambodia.’
This project is no longer
accepted by the Government in
Cambodia and Morten Traavik
must be careful as he delivers the
prize later this year. The prize is
the very best prosthesis that exists
today. The women in the project
are very brave and have
highlighted several issues for
handicapped people in Cambodia
and in other countries as the
exhibition tours the World. The
exhibition is an artistic way of
showing the result of meaningless
warfare in modern history. It also
raises important questions about
beauty.
Exhibitions
Soldiers of peace
T
Uniforms
T
ough and cool and 17 shades of grey are the
themes of this exhibition during 2010. The
exhibition will run for two years and will show as
many uniforms as possible, we will renew it every
six months.
There are over 10,000 garments in our
collection. During the springtime we look at
motorcycle jackets, drummer coats, hussar
dolmans and clothing for operations of large and
heavy machines. We call this part tough and cool.
In the fall we present 17 shades of grey. That is
grey uniforms from various eras and of various
types. We have published a catalogue in English
with plenty of photos. You can buy this from
info@armemuseum.se. The price is 175 SKR.
The collection is very rich and starts in the 17th
century and the most famous are four French
uniforms called justaucorps. They were brought to
Sweden to serve as patterns for the styling of the
Swedish Army in the late 17th century. They are
still in outstanding condition and if you haven’t
seen them - please come to Sweden because they
are the only four of their kind. The design of the
exhibition is very fashionable - you can step on a
catwalk and look at the elegant outfits from
different centuries. We also present a high
standard of invisible mountings made in our own
workshops at the Army museum.
his is an exhibition about Swedes on
peacekeeping duties which started after the
Second World War when the United Nations
Organisation was formed to maintain peace.
For more than 50 years, armed troops have been
used to stop wars. Approximately 100,000 Swedes
have served as Warriors, as Observers, and as
Helpers. The exhibition is about them, the wars they
were sent to — and the nation that sent them. In the
exhibition we ask questions such as: How effective
are peace-promoting operations? What gets help?
Individuals, nations or the global balance of power?
Operations are not always about humanism and
solidarity. At times politics and the interests and
strategic positions of other countries override. Aid
sometimes goes to where it most benefits the
countries supplying the forces. In the exhibition we
have items from peacekeeping operations. That
means things collected by soldiers - souvenirs and
small things but also uniforms, military equipment
and a car. We have an audio guide with interviews
with soldiers and we have a new film showing
different generation’s thoughts and feelings after a
mission abroad. The newest part of the exhibition is
the corner for news. There we present a blog written
by a soldier in Afghanistan. The visitor can ask him
questions direct from the museum or from any
computer. The website is: www.fredssoldater.se
Exhibitions
Conflicts
of Interest
National Army
Museum
A major new exhibition exploring
the role of the British Army
on the world stage
F
rom Northern Ireland and the Falklands to Iraq and
Afghanistan, Conflicts of Interest explores over three
decades of conflict, examining the role of the British Army
across the globe and the impact being a serviceman or
woman has on home life.
This major new redisplay of the National Army
Museum’s Modern Army Gallery will focus on key
international conflicts as well as debating domestic issues
and questions relating to the modern military. The exhibition
will include personal accounts from servicemen and women
and civilians, alongside exclusive images and objects from
the Museum’s collections.
The exhibition’s Afghanistan area sheds light on the
intensity of the recent fighting and the British Army’s long
history in the region. Incorporating recent and historic
images of Afghanistan, firsthand accounts from servicemen
and women and news footage of the war, the area explores
the reasons behind British engagement and the results of
the conflict. The exhibition also contrasts the first and
second Gulf Wars; with chemical warfare kit and a painting
by war artist John Keane; highlighting the threats faced by
forces during the 1990 - 1991 conflict. The zone dedicated to
the recent 2nd Gulf war includes a portrait of Saddam
Hussein previously displayed in Basra airport.
The space devoted to Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Kosovo explores varying levels of British military
engagement during the 1990s - looking at the army both as
UN peace-keeping force, and when engaged in full conflict
under NATO. The exhibition will include newly displayed
images depicting the aftermath of fighting in Kosovo along
with accounts of the operations. Exclusive material will also
be on view in the Sierra Leone zone, including interviews
with senior British officers serving on the ground, and
previously unseen documents.
Conflicting communities, and war close to home will be
the focus in the Northern Ireland section - where a bomb
disposal device - will be displayed alongside images from
thirty years of involvement in the region including art by
Ralph Lilford and leaflets and murals from cities in the
territory. The Falklands area will consider questions of
patriotism, and domestic support for war – incorporating
British footage and newsreel, as well as comment from
Argentine civilians.
The exhibition’s At Home area is themed around some of
the most pressing issues facing the military today - from
changing attitudes towards gender and sexuality in the army
through to debates around equality, including oral histories
from Gurkhas and injured servicemen and women. The section
will look at the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, crime
and homelessness amongst veterans, the implications of the
military covenant, and will also present personal accounts from
the families of servicemen and women.
Conflicts of Interest will look at operations in which the
British military have been involved to a lesser extent through
Conflicting Opinions; an interactive space inviting
contribution and comment. The exhibition will consider the
consequences of both intervention and interaction, looking at
two conflicts in which British troops were involved on a
lesser scale. This area will be a forum for debate both within
the exhibition and online - as visitors can access and interact
with the Conflicting Opinions section via the website, where
there will be an opportunity to share opinions and take part
in a poll on the conflicts depicted. Visitors will also be invited
- both online and within the Museum - to help to shape the
exhibition, and vote for a third conflict to be included in the
space when the Conflicting Opinions zone is updated in
November. The website will launch to coincide with the
exhibition opening in September.
Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HT
Open daily 10.00am to 5.30pm (Closed: 1 January, Good
Friday, Early May Bank Holiday, 24-26 December)
Tel: 020 7730 0717 Fax: 020 7823 6573
Email: info@national-army-museum.ac.uk
www.national-army-museum.ac.uk
Publications
Building an arms
and armour library
B
ooks are an essential tool for the curator and museum
specialist; they are still one of the simplest ways to
learn from the knowledge and experience of our
predecessors. However it can be difficult for the newcomer
in our field to know what are the best introductions to our
subjects or which are worth acquiring. We asked a number
of our colleagues from around the world to recommend
those books which they find most useful in their work; enjoy
reading; think are important for any museum specialist to
have and use or which have inspired them. Each responded
in a different way but the results represent perhaps la crème
de la crème of arms and armour books. Not all of them are
in print. Some can be found quite easily secondhand while
others are probably only now available in good libraries. We
hope you enjoy this selection and that it will encourage you to
acquire, read and enjoy them. And if, given the breadth of our
subject, we have left out books you would recommend, let us
know for inclusion in a future issue.
Guy Wilson
F
ormer Master of the Armouries and a recognised expert
on firearms and crossbows, Guy wrote: ‘What a difficult
task. Not the best, or the most useful, of the most often
used, but our the final choice took much longer. I found that
my definition of favourite included, one way or another,
books that I have ‘grown up’ in some way with. So here is my
final three, with some explanations, in order of precedence’
Howard Blackmore, Hunting Weapons. (London, 1971)
I first met Howard Blackmore when he had just finishing
the research and writing of this book. I remember him
talking about the amount of effort he had put into it, and the
pleasure he got out of it over the years. The result is, for me,
a constant joy. A book about all sorts of weapons used all
around the world; a book packed with good stories (Howard
always wrote well) and interesting, quirky facts. I have found
to my cost that if you think you’ve discovered something,
look in Hunting Weapons and you’ll usually find that Howard
got there before you. Some who know me well might have
thought that I would choose a book on crossbows, but I
haven’t because, to be honest, they are all a bit of a
disappointment. No, in my view the best history of the
crossbow so far written is Howard’s chapter in Hunting
Weapons, and the same could be said about other chapters,
too. So, here you have a very rare book, an eminently
Publications
the book that first really taught me about the history of
arms, and almost fifty years on there is not much that would
need to be changed in what Claude wrote. It is a model of
clear organisation and concise writing, it is comprehensive
and it is well illustrated (given that black and white was then
the norm) with well chosen examples of all important types.
It is, therefore, to me, the fundamental book on arms. Once
a young curator ‘knows’ this book he or she will be well on
the way to being an arms expert. Ignore it and you will
spend much time searching for less reliable information.
Had it not already been chosen by others I would also have
wanted to add to this Claude’s book European Armour, for
many of the same reasons. I know that for most people the
armour book appears to be by far the better and more
important work, but for its clarity, brevity and
comprehensiveness I still vote for European and American
Arms. Know everything in both of these books and you’ll be
a force to be reckoned with!
readable, engaging book that is also comprehensive and
trustworthy. That’s why it’s my number one.
Howard Blackmore, A Dictionary of London Gunmakers
1350-1850 (Oxford, 1986) and Gunmakers of London
Supplement (Bloomfield, 1999)
I know I am cheating a little but these two volumes are
really the single result of Howard’s lifetime of research into
the subject. It may seem unusual for one of my favourite
books to be a dictionary, but I do get great pleasure from
just dipping into it from time to time. Now, if we had been
asked for the most used book, I would have to have replaced
this with Eugen Heer’s monumental three volume Der Neue
Støckel, but though we often use it, I am pretty sure it will
not be many people’s favourite book, and although in many
ways for a firearms historian it may be one of the most
useful its usefulness is very much tempered by its
unreliability. So I come back to Howard’s work on
gunmakers which is always a pleasure to delve into and has
not yet proved to be inaccurate or disappointing. Best of all,
packed into the apparently dry entries of the makers are a
wealth of facts about the lives, skills and iniquities of the
gunmakers of London. And there is so much besides. You’ll
find details about 17th century Japanning warehouses,
strange inventions like the gun trumpet for preventing the
collision of ships in foggy weather and much, much more.
And, of course, I must end by saying there are more details
here of English crossbow makers than almost anywhere
else. Dip in sometimes and enjoy.
Claude Blair, European and American Arms (London, 1962)
My final choice has less to do with sentiment (and is not
a reaction to Claude’s recent death) than my first two, and
more to do with reason and argument. I do not find this a
loveable book like Howard’s two, but I recognise it as an
essential one, even though I rarely use it these days. It was
Jan Piet Puype
F
ormer curator of arms and armour at the Legermuseum
in Delft. Jan Piet is probably best known as a specialist
in swords but he is knowledgeable on most aspects of arms
and armour.
A.V.B. Norman, The Rapier and Small-Sword 1460-1820;
with illustrations and advice by C.M. Barne (London, 1980)
Nick Norman’s masterpiece stands out for its
methodological standards and is an absolute must for those
interested in European swords and the typology and
construction of their hilts. Each hilt type is accompanied by
a drawing which clearly show the different features. There
are similar typologies on pommels and what are called
inner guards. The drawings are matched by concise
descriptions which themselves are miracles of telling a lot
in a very limited amount of words. There are sections on
terminology, history, various details, decoration and
techniques. Plus no less than seven separate indices, (of
course) all done by hand and of inestimable quality because
they lack the mechanical and indiscriminate multiplicity of a
computerised index. The only disadvantage, if one must
expressly name one, is that the book does not deal with the
blades of rapiers and small-swords.
W.E. May and P.G.W. Annis, Swords for Sea Service : with a
note on the Sword-Cutler by J.D. Aylward : drawings by
P.G.W. Annis etc. In two volumes. (London 1970)
This is still the best book on naval swords and dirks ever
published. It is not a catalogue although it leans heavily on
the collection of the National Maritime Museum in
Greenwich. The emphasis lies on British naval swords but
there are many chapters on examples from other countries.
There are many large-sized photographs of sword-hilts,
some in colour. Most of them are newly commissioned but
there are some older photographs. There are many good
Publications
drawings of hilts, marks, etc. The disadvantage of this work,
i.e. disadvantageous of course for those who miss it, is the
lack of systematic sword descriptions as in this book’s
predecessor, H.T.A. Bosanquet’s The Naval Officer’s Sword
of 1955, but that of course contained entries like a proper
catalogue.
Howard L Blackmore, British Military Firearms, 1650-1850
(London, 1961)
Despite good, more recent work by others such as De
Witt Bailey and David Harding this is still the book I go to
before all others, if only for a good sound starting point, but
more often all I need.
M. Pétard, Des sabres et des épées. In three volumes.
(Nantes 1999 and [Vol.3] 2005)
The absolute value of these volumes lie in the
unsurpassed drawings by Michel Pétard whom we had
already gotten acquainted with as the illustrator of Christian
Ariès’ 30-volume work Armes blanches militaries françaises
as well as of many issues of the French magazine Gazette
des armes and a number of publications on uniforms. The
drawings in Des sabres are all to the scale 1:4 and, contrary
to most of Pétards other publications, all in colour. Among
them are many close-ups in a larger scale on various hilt
details. Of course using colour has made the crosshatching, stippling, line-emphasising, etc., of drawings in
black ink superfluous so the newer drawings gain in
clearness when compared to those in Ariès’ work. In order
to let the user fully appreciate the intricate forms of some of
the hilts and enjoy the colour and patina of the real thing,
the author has added many colour photographs of the
swords already rendered in drawings. Excellent typological
hilt drawings in 1:8 scale appear in the back of the books,
offering the possibility of quick identification and
comparison, and there are addendae for marks.
R. E. Dupuy and T. N. Dupuy, The Encyclopedia of Military
History from 3500 B.C. to the present (London, 1970)
Simply a great starting place.
David J Blackmore
M
useum Consultant and Independent Scholar, author of
Arms and Armour of the English Civil Wars, (London,
1990) and British Cavalry of the Mid-18th Century
(Nottingham, 2008).
David, formerly of the Royal Armouries, Leeds and a
specialist in the 17th and 18th century British Army and
their weapons as well as a keen re-enactor recommends
the following:
John Houlding, Fit for Service, the Training of the British
Army, 1715-1795 (Oxford, 1981)
Probably the best recent book on the British Army of the
18th century. Suffice it to say that my copy is falling to
pieces.
C. H. Firth, Cromwell’s Army, (First published London, 1902,
most recently, London, 1992)
Over a hundred years old and still unmatched for its
breadth and depth, not only of the New Model Army, but the
nature of warfare during the English Civil War.
Lar Joye
M
ilitary curator at the National Museum of Ireland.
Lar is our host for the forthcoming ICOMAM
conference in Dublin and has suggested:
Claude Blair, Pollards History of Firearms (Country Life
Books, 1983)
This was the first book I read when I came to the
museum 10 years ago to work as the Military Curator at the
National Museum of Ireland. As the only curator dealing
with military history you need to have wide range of books
on weapons, uniforms and ephemera and this book was a
great introduction to the topic of firearms.
David H L Back, Great Irish gun makers Messrs Rigby17601869 (Norwich, 1992)
One of the few books about Irish gunsmiths. By 1800
there were 19 gun makers in Dublin making and selling
duelling pistols in Dublin and this is looked at in our
exhibition about duelling in Ireland entitled: Blaze Away.
Naturally this book was invaluable in the research carried
out for the exhibition.
William Dowell, Webley Story (Commonwealth Heritage
Foundation, 1987)
Now, sadly, out of print but Webley revolvers are the
most common type of revolver that are brought into the
museum to be indentified so this is a very handy book. In
addition of course Webley made the Ulster Bulldog and the
Royal Irish Constabulary revolvers so there is also as strong
Irish link.
The Irish Sword
The journal of the Military History Society of Ireland for
the last 60 years and the best source of information on Irish
weapons and Irish military history. Over the years various
authors have attempted to create a full list of gun makers
and cutlers in Ireland in this journal and last year the first
book was on the subject was finally published by Richard J
Garret, “Irish Gunmakers”
Publications
a treasure trove of obscure weapons and types of armor and
related accoutrements from all parts of the world, with the
emphasis being on non-European cultures.
Robert Elgood. Hindu Arms and Ritual: Arms and Armour
from India, 1400-1865 (Delft, 2004).
Focusing on the southern half of India, the book offers
an extremely detailed and well illustrated exploration of this
complex subject in far greater depth than anything
attempted previously.
Ruth Rhynas Brown
R
Donald J LaRocca
D
on is curator in the Arms and Armor Department of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In recent
years, Don has made a special study of oriental and Asian
arms and armour and is the author of the acclaimed
Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and
Armor of Tibet (New York, 2006). As he says ‘Everything you
needed to know (and never knew you should ask)’. Don
recommends the following:
Leon and Hiroko Kapp, and Yoshindo Yoshihara. The Craft of
the Japanese Sword (Kodansha International, Tokyo, New
York, London, first edition 1987).
This is the single most useful, well rounded,
comprehensive, and accessible book about Japanese
swords in English. It has the added advantage, lacking in
most books on the subject, in discussing not only blades
and blade making, but also sword polishing, and scabbard
making. Missing is any treatment of sword fittings and
scabbard mountings.
Kanzan Sato, translated by Joe Earle. The Japanese Sword:
A Comprehensive Guide (Kodansha International, Tokyo,
New York, London, first edition 1983).
A detailed and traditional history of the development of
the Japanese sword. Includes chapters on sword fittings
and mountings.
H. Russell Robinson. Oriental Armour (Dover Books, New
York 2002. First published London, 1967).
Still the best single volume English-language
introduction to armor (not weapons), from the Middle East,
Turkey, India, China, and Japan.
George C. Stone. A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration
and Use of Arms and Armor (Portland, Maine 1934.
Reprinted by Dover Books, New York, 1999).
While dated and flawed in many ways, this book remains
uth, an independent scholar, works on 17th and 18th
century artillery and her work, among other things,
frequently involves identifying cast-iron cannon, for which
she has to refer to a number of different types of books.
Michel l’Hour, L. Long & E. Reith Le Mauritius
(Grenoble, 1989)
Reports on underwater archaeology are one of the most
useful sources, as they have what I would call concrete
information from a dated context. This is the underwater
report I most go back to and recounts in French the recovery
of a Dutch East Indiaman, lost in 1609 off the coast of
Gabon. There is an inventory of the guns recovered,
including bronze Dutch and Portuguese cannons, English
cast-iron ordnance and wrought -iron swivels, making it a
useful touchstone for individual types of guns, and for mixed
assemblages. And most of the cannon are illustrated.
Henry Cleere and David Crossley, The Iron Industry of the
Weald (2nd edition) (Cardiff 1995).
Jeremy Hodgkinson, The Wealden Iron Industry ( 2008)
Another area I need to know about is casting technology
and local history. Many of the cannons I investigate were
cast in the Weald in the south of England, where there is an
active local society, Wealden Iron Research Group. One of
the publications they have sponsored is The Iron Industry of
the Weald. The second edition in particular is the volume I
come to check out founders and furnaces. Sadly this is out
of print, but a recent publication which provides a good start
for beginners in the field, is Jeremy Hodgkinson’s The
Wealden Iron Industry.
David Crossley and Richard Saville (eds), The Fuller letters,
1728-1755 (Lewes, 1991)
At some point you will begin to use original documents.
The Sussex Record Society published a collection of letters
of the Fullers, Georgian ironfounders. This volume,
surprisingly neglected by arms and armour historians, take
you right into the life of the gentleman gunfounder of the
18th century.
Stephen Bull. The Furie of the Ordnance (Boydell and
Brewer, Woodbridge, 2008)
Publications
Finally, a surprisingly rare type - books actually about
artillery- there are still very few, but the most recent addition
is an excellent introduction into the use of artillery in the 17th
century and contains a wealth of interesting detail.
Robert D Smith
M
y work centres mainly of early artillery and on
gunpowder but I have a passion for armour, especially
before 1500.
Howard L Blackmore. The Armouries of the Tower of
London. I: Ordnance. (London: HMSO, 1976)
This was, perhaps, the first really authoritative catalogue
of an artillery collection in the second half of the 20th
century. It includes, not only well researched entries on all
the cannon in the Royal Armouries collections, but a great
deal of additional material drawn from original sources and
a good glossary of artillery terms. Packed with good, reliable
information, it is also a joy to read.
A Essenwein. Quellen zur Geschichte de Feuerwaffen.
(Leipzig, 1877, available in a modern re-print, Graz, 1969)
This 2 volume book, produced originally in 1877 and
reprinted in Graz in 1969, is absolutely invaluable for its
illustrations of cannon drawn mainly from manuscripts
though also of many existing examples. Although the dating
on some of the earlier pieces is now being revised it is still
an invaluable tool and one which I go back to time and again
and always find new and intriguing material.
David Edge and John M. Paddock Arms and armour of the
medieval knight (Bison Books Ltd, 1988)
A useful book to recommend to those just starting to get
interested in arms and armour. Well illustrated and
attractively written.
Claude Blair, European Armour (Batsford, 1958)
The essential source for the history and development of
armour in English. No serious scholar can afford not to have
a copy on his or her shelf.
Eveline Sint Nicolaas
E
veline is curator at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Jan Piet Puype, The Visser Collection. Arms of the
Netherlands in the Collection of H.L. Visser, Volume I in 3
parts (Zwolle, 1996)
Publications
(Amsterdam) and the Legermuseum (Delft) in the
Netherlands.
Jan Piet Puype and Piet de Gryse, Viersprachiges Lexikon
der Gefässwaffen. Deutsch Niederländisch Französisch
Englisch (Gesellschaft für Historische Waffen- und
Kostümkunde, 2006)
An essential book for anyone who is interested in edged
weapons.
Robert D. Smith, Heavy Metal. Focus on European Armour
(Legermuseum, Delft, 2004)
A perfect starting point if you want to know about
armour. Expertly written with humour!
Rudi Roth, The Visser Collection. Arms of the Netherlands
in the Collection of H.L. Visser, Volume II Ordnance (Zwolle
1996)
Henk L. Visser & DeWitt Bailey (ed), Aspects of Dutch
Gunmaking A Collection of Essays (Zwolle 1997)
The world famous collection of Henk L. Visser (1923-2006) is
expertly described in great detail by Jan Piet Puype
(firearms) and Rudi Roth (ordnance), with many photographs
of details and drawings of marks. Also a good starting point
for biographical information on makers. The Vissercollection can now be found in the Rijksmuseum
Justus Lipsius
Award
Regulations of the
Justus Lipsius
Award 2011
I
n 2000, IAMAM, the predecessor of the International
Committee of Museums and Collections of Arms and
Military History (ICOMAM), created a special award, designed
to stimulate studies in the fields covered by ICOMAM. The
prize is called the Justus Lipsius Award referring to Justus
Lipsius, the famous humanist, philologist, legislator and
noteworthy antiquarian active in the Netherlands during the
16th century who published on various military subjects. The
Justus Lipsius Award will distinguish outstanding
contributions on subjects such as arms, artillery, armaments
(land, sea and air), military uniforms and equipment, flags,
emblems, military music, fortification and museology
pertaining to the above mentioned fields but excluding
theoretical military history. The prize money for this triennial
award consists of a sum of 2,500 Euros.
Jan Piet Puype and Marco van der Hoeven, The Arsenal of
the World. The Dutch Arms Trade in the Seventeenth
Century (Delft, 1996.)
An interesting book for anyone who wants to know about
the Dutch arms trade in its glorious days. Includes essays, a
catalogue of arms, a list of 17th century terms regarding
arms and accessories and drawings of different lock
mechanisms.
Jens Sensfelder and Harms Stevens (ed) Crossbows in the
Royal Netherlands Army Museum (in English, German,
Dutch) (Delft, 2007
A beautiful illustrated book on crossbows with a
convenient arrangement and detailed information.
For this purpose, a competition for the best newly
published or unpublished scholarly study in the abovementioned fields is organised every three years. The period
covered in this present competition is 2008, 2009 and 2010.
This competition is open to all but the studies must be
submitted to the Secretary of the Justus Lipsius Award
before February 1st, 2011. Submissions received after this
date will not be considered.
The studies must be written in or translated into one of
the official ICOMAM languages i.e. English or French. Other
languages are also allowed, provided the texts are
accompanied by a substantial abstract in either English or
French. The author will submit two copies of the study,
typewritten or in electronic format, or two copies of the
published version. For the typewritten and electronic formats,
at least one set of the original photographic illustrations is to
be added; a set of xerox prints is allowed for the other copy.
The study should range around at least 20,000 words.
Submissions for the competition must be sent to: The
Secretary of the Justus Lipsius Award, Mrs Eveline Sint
Nicolaas, c/o Rijksmuseum, P.O. Box 74888, NL-1070 DN
Amsterdam, Netherlands; e-mail:
e.sintnicolaas@rijksmuseum.nl; fax: +31-20-6747001),
before February 1st, 2011. Submissions received after this
date will not be considered.
Publications
A jury, nominated by ICOMAM, will grant the prize. The
ICOMAM Executive Board can decide to open the jury to
outside experts. The jury reserves the right not to grant the
award should the studies submitted prove to be irrelevant to
the above mentioned field or of insufficient quality. The jury
will judge the submitted studies on their quality and the
contribution they represent to the knowledge of ICOMAM
related subjects. No correspondence and no discussion on
the decisions of the jury will be allowed.
The winner will be announced during the next ICOMAM
meeting after the submission date, this is during the ICOMAM
2011 Congress. He or she will retain full credit for and
ownership of the study if it is still unpublished at that stage.
Additional information can be obtained from the
secretary of the Justus Lipsius Award (Mrs Eveline Sint
Nicolaas, c/o Rijksmuseum, P.O. Box 74888, NL-1070 DN
Amsterdam, Netherlands; e-mail:
e.sintnicolaas@rijksmuseum.nl; fax: +31-20-6747001) or by
visiting the website of ICOMAM www.icomam.icom.museum.
Former winners of the JLA:
2002: Walter J. Karcheski Jr et Thom Richardson, The
Medieval Armour from Rhodes, 2000
et: J.P. Puype et R.J. de Stürler Boekwijt, Klewang :
catalogue of the Dutch Army Museum, 2001
2005: S. James Gooding, Trade Guns of the Hudson’s Bay
Company 1690-1970, 2003
et : José-A. Godoy and Silvio Leydi, Parures Triomphales :
le maniérisme dans l’art de l’armure italienne, 2003
2008: Donald LaRocca, Warriors of the Himalayas
Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet, New York, 2006
Regulations de Prix Juste Lipse
E
n 2000, IAMAM, le prédécesseur de l’ICOMAM
(l’International Committee of Museums and Collections
of Arms and Military History – Le comité international des
Musées et des collections d’armes et de Musées militaires)
créa un prix spécialement destiné à stimuler l’étude des
sujets couverts par l’ICOMAM. La distinction reçut le nom de
Prix Juste Lipse. Juste Lipse est en effet cet humaniste des
Pays-Bas du XVIme siècle, philologue, homme de loi et
antiquaire de renom qui publia divers écrits sur des sujets
militaires. Le Prix Juste Lipse récompense les ouvrages
représentant une contribution significative dans des
domaines comme les armes, l’artillerie, l’armement (terre,
mer et air), uniformes et équipements militaires, drapeaux,
emblèmes, musique militaire, fortifications et la muséologie
ayant trait à ces domaines mais en excluant l’histoire
militaire théorique. La récompense liée à ce prix triennal
s’élève à 2.500 Euros.
Dans ce but, un concours pour la meilleure étude
publiée ou non publiée est organisé tous les 3 ans. La
période qui est envisagée dans cet appel couvre les
publications des années 2008, 2009 et 2010. Le concours est
ouvert à tous mais les études doivent nous parvenir avant le
1er février 2011. Les candidatures reçues après cette date
ne seront pas prises en compte.
Les études doivent êtres écrites ou traduites dans une
des langues officielles de l’ICOMAM, c’est-à-dire l’Anglais
ou le Français. D’autres langues sont aussi admises à
conditions que le texte soit accompagné d’un résumé
conséquent en Anglais ou Français. L’auteur enverra deux
copies dactylographiées ou électroniques de l’étude ou deux
copies de l’œuvre publiée. Les formats électroniques et
dactylographiés seront accompagnés d’au moins un jeu
d’illustrations photographiques originales ; un jeu de
photocopies suffit pour l’autre format. L’étude comptera au
moins 20.000 mots.
Les candidatures au concours seront envoyées au
Secrétariat du Prix Juste Lipse, Mme Eveline Sint Nicolaas,
c/o Rijksmuseum, P.O.Box 74888, 1070 DN Amsterdam,
Pays-Bas; courriel HYPERLINK
"mailto:e.sintnicolaas@rijksmuseum.nl"
e.sintnicolaas@rijksmuseum.nl ; fax 31-20-6747001, avant le
1er février 2011. Les candidatures reçues après cette date
ne seront plus valables.
Le prix sera remis par un jury, nommé par l’ICOMAM. Le
comité directeur de l’ICOMAM peut ouvrir le jury à des
experts extérieurs. Le jury se réserve le droit de ne pas
remettre de prix au cas où les études en question ne
seraient pas en rapport avec les domaines mentionnés cidessus ou si la qualité des études était insuffisante. Le jury
jugera les ouvrages en fonction de leur qualité et de leur
contribution au centre d’intérêt de l’ICOMAM. Aucune
discussion à propos des décisions du jury ne sera admise.
Le résultat sera proclamé lors du congrès ICOMAM
consécutif à la date ultime d’envoi c.-à-d. lors du congrès
ICOMAM 2011. L’auteur gardera tous les droits sur l’ouvrage
si celui-ci n’a pas encore été publié à ce moment.
Pour plus d’amples informations vous pouvez vous
addressez au secrétaire du jury (Mme Eveline Sint Nicolaas,
c/o Rijksmuseum, P.O.Box 74888, 1070 DN Amsterdam,
Pays-Bas; courriel "mailto:
e.sintnicolaas@rijksmuseum.nl"; fax 31-20-6747001 ) ou
consultez le site web de l’ICOMAM
www.Icomam.icom.museum.
Précédents gagnants du PJL :
2002: Walter J. Karcheski Jr et Thom Richardson, The
Medieval Armour from Rhodes, 2000
et: J.P. Puype et R.J. de Stürler Boekwijt, Klewang :
catalogue of the Dutch Army Museum, 2001
2005: S. James Gooding, Trade Guns of the Hudson’s Bay
Company 1690-1970, 2003
et : José-A. Godoy and Silvio Leydi, Parures Triomphales :
le maniérisme dans l’art de l’armure italienne, 2003
2008: Donald LaRocca, Warriors of the Himalayas
Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet, New York, 2006
The regulations can be changed without previous notice.
Le règlement peut être adapté à tout moment.
Articles
Engineering a career: Postgraduate
museum placement at the Royal Engineers
Museum, a student’s perspective
Above: The Royal Engineers Museum
David Wilson
I
t was during my final year of my
undergraduate degree in History at
the University of Leeds that I decided
to pursue a career in the Museum
profession, and as a result I
successfully applied to do a Masters in
Museum Studies at the University of
Leicester. Unlike a number of my
fellow students on the course, I had
had no previous experience of working
in a museum environment; the closest
I had come was doing some research
for my father on First World War
soldiers’ stories for the Duke of
Wellington Regiment’s Museum. I had
however been brought up around
museums and been dragged round
them as a kid, as well as hearing
stories my father used to tell of his
time at the Royal Armouries. Try as he
might he was unable to dissuade me
from a career in the museum sector,
but instead fostered an interest to
enter into it myself which I hoped in
doing an MA in Museum Studies would
give me a firm grounding with which to
do this.
In the UK today Museum Studies
or equivalent postgraduate degrees
are divided between the theoretical
teaching at the University, and some
form of work placement to gain the
practical implementation of these
skills and hands-on experience in a
museum environment. On the
Leicester course it takes the form of a
2 month placement at the end of the
year. It was this work placement that I
was particularly looking forward to as I
had no previous experience of what it
was like to work in a museum. Whilst I
thoroughly enjoyed the year at
Leicester, I was excited to get the
chance to implement what I had
learnt, and to find out for myself if the
horror stories my father used to tell
me were true.
For the universities which offer
these kinds of courses, the practical
work placements are seen as a must
and are used to cement and make use
of the knowledge acquired from the
taught side of the course. Barbara
Lloyd who organises the Leicester
Museum Studies Museum and Gallery
Experience (the name given to the
placement scheme) sees it as a very
important part of the course to
complement the theoretical elements
we were taught and in order for the
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students to relate to what they have
studied. Whilst the recently re-housed
Museum Studies Department at the
University of Leicester allows for
much more practical on-site teaching,
the ability to get hands on experience
in a museum environment which these
placements offer is an essential part
of their role to develop students who
are prepared and equipped to enter
work in the museum sector. Barbara
Lloyd sees benefits to both students
and the museums in which they work.
For the student such placements give
the opportunity to get a much better
understanding of what it is like to work
in a museum environment, and also to
meet and talk with professional
colleagues, develop experience and try
out a career path. For the museums
where they work they provide a more
definite outcome than volunteering.
With students coming straight from a
museum studies degree like that at
Leicester, the recipient museum
knows exactly what you are capable of
due to the quality of the teaching, so
they know what they’ll be getting and
can plan accordingly. This, combined
with the length of the placement,
results in the students being treated
differently from the volunteering many
of the students had done before the
start of the course. Experience shows
that course-placed students are seen
more as an additional member of staff
and are allowed more freedom in the
approach to the completion of their
projects. The wide variety and types of
placements available also allows for a
much more specific choice of what
projects you undertake, giving the
students the ability to choose a
placement which matches their
interests from among the many
different aspects of work in the
museum sector.
During my year at Leicester I had
developed an interest in project
management; largely through a
number of group projects we were set.
For me these were the most
challenging and rewarding parts of the
course. When it came to choosing
museums to apply to for the work
placement period, I was instantly
Course-placed students
are seen more as an
additional member of
staff and are allowed
more freedom in the
approach to the
completion of their
projects
attracted to the opportunity provided
by the Royal Engineers Museum which
had project management as one of the
many interesting and diverse tasks on
offer, and being a military museum,
would also allow me to utilise my
enthusiasm in military history which I
pursued at the University of Leeds.
Two of us from the Leicester Museum
Studies course were accepted to
undergo our work placements at the
Royal Engineers Museum, and I was
much looking forward to the challenge
this opportunity presented. The Royal
Engineers Museum, located in
Gillingham, Kent, tells the story of the
Corps of Royal Engineers and the
history of military engineering in the
British Army and is home to a
designated collection of over 1 million
items. This vast and varied collection,
ranging from models to large military
vehicles, is situated over a large site
housed in both the museum and the
library and archive, and also at the
Chatham Historic Dockyard. It is an
excellent and important museum but it
does have financial challenges, cannot
employ as many staff as it might wish,
and is visited by only around 10, 000
visitors a year. The museum itself is
very impressive, but due to pressures
on resources many of the displays are
showing their age. Large volumes of
text in small font sizes are one of the
problems that the older displays
present to visitors, and the condition
and upkeep of some of the cabinets
are recognised by all in the museum
as needing improving.
Our placement task at the Royal
Engineers Museum was, therefore, to
redesign and redevelop two of the
older display cases within the
museum within a budget of £1,750.
The first was the small case which
told the story of the Royal Engineers
involvement in the Ashanti wars
between 1824 and 1900. The other
housed the only surviving Brennan
Torpedo which was used in the
defence of important ports and docks
across the British Empire. New
standardised text panels with simpler,
more understandable text had already
Below: The Ashanti case before and after
Articles
Above: The Brennan Torpedo with side
panel removed showing internal
mechanisms. Operated from an onshore
station, two steam powered engines would
retract a pair of wires which ran around
two drums inside the torpedo causing
rotational energy which was converted
into forward propulsion via two propellers.
It had a range of 1 ½ miles with an
explosive charge of 220lbs of gun cotton,
and by varying the speeds with which the
wires were retracted the operators were
able to steer the torpedo increasing its
accuracy. The Brennan torpedo’s unique
method of propulsion makes it stand out
from other contemporary torpedoes.
Above: The Brennan Torpedo case before and after and a completed text panel showing
the design work I undertook whilst on work placement at the Royal Engineers museum
been implemented in the galleries up
to the Ashanti and Brennan cases, and
we were asked to do a similar job of
simplifying and condensing the text,
and making it more appropriate for a
wider audience. This involved us doing
extensive research in the Royal
Engineers Library and Archive on the
Brompton Barracks site, and then
using the information and pictures
discovered to help develop the text and
design the panels. We then gave our
preliminary designs to an external
designer and agreed an affordable
price for their development. We were
instructed to develop the text panels
within a set word limit so as to keep
the amount of text used to a minimum,
and to make the most of diagrams and
pictures to increase the public’s
understanding. One of the things we
were specifically requested to ensure
for the Brennan Torpedo case was that
our interpretive panels explain, in a
simple way, how the torpedo worked
and why it was unique. While simple in
design the Brennan torpedo is a very
complicated piece of mechanical
engineering and we knew it would be
very difficult to explain in writing.
Unfortunately we found that simple
diagrams showing how it worked did
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not exist, so I had to draw a set of
simple illustrations which
demonstrated the unique qualities of
the Brennan Torpedo. Our task also
included the designing and fitting out
of the displays themselves. For this we
had to get inside the cases and take
accurate 3D measurements of the
space so we could see how best to use
them and ensure that everything
would fit. This also saw us improving
the general condition of the Brennan
torpedo case by removing a few tons of
untreated gravel that had been used
on the floor and was starting to cause
the conditions within the case to
deteriorate. Furthermore we had to
select and catalogue objects to come
on and off display, help in their
preservation and update the
collections management system.
My time at the Royal Engineers
was both enjoyable and useful. Of
course I cannot speak for everyone
from Leicester, let alone from any
other course in the UK, with regards to
the quality of their placements,
everybody will have had a different
experience but the benefits of these
practical placements for students
looking to develop a career in the
museum sector cannot be
overemphasised. My placement has
given me a better and more rounded
idea of the reality of working in a
museum environment than I would
have got simply from the theoretical
side of the Museum Studies course. It
has taught me especially about the
realities of working in a small
museum where you have to do a lot of
jobs yourself. For instance, on my
work placement I found myself
shovelling a few tons of gravel,
sanding the parquet flooring in the
Brennan case, buying paint from
Homebase, and clearing and reorganising stores of large machinery!
For the recipient museums as
well, these work experience
opportunities can provide a number of
benefits. In a recent interview I asked
the head curator at the Royal
Engineers Museum, Rebecca Nash,
why they were keen to get students
from Leicester University to do their
Above: Other galleries in the Museum,
Crimean War display case and a recently
redeveloped display case of the Sappers
involvement in India
the benefits of these
practical placements for
students looking to
develop a career in the
museum sector cannot
be overemphasised
work experience with them. In her
view, students enrolled on a Museum
Studies course can act as additional
curators, and at a small museum like
that of the Royal Engineers Museum,
the addition of more staff is always
welcome. Work placement students
can act as volunteers who do not need
detailed briefing, nor have to be kept
under constant observation by a
member of staff. Instead they have the
ability to go off and get the job done.
Barbara Lloyd notes how no museum
has time to do everything and that the
Leicester Museum and Gallery
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Experience gives the recipient
museums an extra pair of hands which
allows projects to get done in a
professional way so that the outcome
can really be used, giving real tangible
results for both the students and the
museums. In a museum like the Royal
Engineers Museum where there are a
lot of projects on the go and staff
resources are stretched, having two
students from the Leicester Museum
Studies course enabled them to
complete a number of projects that
would otherwise have waited a long
time before they could be done. And
for students and museum alike, it
Above: Other galleries in the Museum.
The Home Front display in the Second
World War gallery and a view of part of the
Second World War gallery
Having this experience
extend over a 2 month
period at the end of the
course allows students
like me to focus on a
project and really get
our teeth into it
gives that practical skills experience
needed for future employment.
Rebecca Nash also said that she had
found something missing from recent
graduate job applicants - the practical
skills which would enable them to hit
the ground running. The placement
programme is intended to help
develop those practical skills, and I
believe that it worked for me.
The Museum and Gallery
Experience is important because it
offers something that cannot be got
from the taught side of the course
which focuses more of the best
practice in museums and has a
greater focus on larger, national
museums as opposed to smaller
museums where everyone has to get
their hands dirty and be prepared to
tackle anything. Having this
experience extend over a 2 month
period at the end of the course allows
students like me to focus on a project
and really get our teeth into it, using
what we have learnt and putting into
practise the skills we have been
taught. Crucially, of course, it gives us
a real appreciation of what it would be
like to work in a museum full time.
At the end of our work placements
we had to submit a report as our final
piece of work on our time at our
respective museum placements, and
our host museum wrote a report on
how we did during the two month
period. What is more, these reports
from our recipient museums can be
made available at the student’s
request, and I believe this feedback is
incredibly valuable. Throughout
university I have been given feedback
on my academic work which has
enabled me to take confidence in my
strengths and work on areas of my
essay writing that may be missing. To
be able to see how your performance
has been viewed during your work
placement by the recipient museum
similarly brings a lot of confidence to
aspiring museum professionals. My
appetite had now been whetted. I can
only hope that what I have learnt about
museums and myself will prove of
value as I apply for jobs and attend
interviews.
News
Teaching children about war
Lauri Haavisto
Director of Research, The Artillery Museum of Finland
T
he Artillery Museum of Finland is
one of the ten branches of service
museums in Finland. It operates
under the direction of the Military
Museum of Finland, but is run by the
Artilleryman association. The museum
is funded by the Finnish government
through the ministry of education and
the ministry of defence.
The Artillery Museum of Finland is
located in southern Finland in the city
of Hämeenlinna. The Museum
portrays the history of Finnish field
artillery from the time of Swedish rule
in Finland in the 15th century to the
present. The majority of the material
on display in the museum is owned by
the Finnish Defence Forces. The focus
of the museum is on Finland and its
struggle during the Second World War.
At the beginning of 2009 an idea
occurred to us at the museum - in
November 2009 it would be 70 years
since the Winter War started between
Finland and the Soviet Union and to
The approach that we
chose was to try to bring
different aspects of the
war closer to the
students by letting
themselves act and
do things
commemorate this we decided to
organize an event at the museum with
a local school to teach students about
the war. The approach that we chose
was to try to bring different aspects of
the war closer to the students by
letting themselves act and do things.
The school of Hämeenlinnan
Yhteiskoulu (Hämeenlinna
Coeducational School) was a natural
companion to us because they have an
extremely enthusiastic teaching staff
who were willing to do the extra work
that this kind of project needs. This
was also convenient since our severely
undermanned staff could not do
everything by itself. So after a few
meetings we decided to plan a full day
for the children at the museum. Being
that they were 7-9 graders, 13 to 16
years old students, we thought that a
full day would be the best way to
convey the message. The Armoured
Brigade of the Finnish army that was
located nearby also promised
assistance in the form of personnel
and material if needed.
The day would consist of different
checkpoints that would connect with
the winter war theme. A balance was
sought between actions and letting the
students themselves do something
that wasn’t too demanding for them.
A day filled only with action would
probably have worn them out
completely. We settled for a program
that would start 9 o’clock in the
morning and would continue until 1
o’clock in the afternoon. In the middle
of the day would be a lunch break,
Articles
lunch being served on the museum
premises. The students came to the
museum over three days with 9th
graders being there the first day, 8th
graders the second and 7th graders
the third. The approximately 150
students a day were divided into six
groups and were guided from
checkpoint to checkpoint by some 9th
graders that had been given this
special duty as a reward for their
previous good grades. These students
also wrote of the event for their
student paper and were given other
organisational responsibilities as well.
At the beginning of the day I welcomed
the children to the museum dressed
as a captain of the Finnish army. I
explained how the day was organised
and what they could expect. At the end
of the day I also spoke and read the
Finnish army’s leaders Marshall
Mannerheims greeting to the Finnish
nation at the end of the war.
The checkpoints consisted of
several different themes
The first checkpoint was a
situation where the students were
supposed to be young Finns in the last
days of the winter war when they were
given a brief summary of the situation
in the front, military discipline and
equipment.
The second checkpoint was where
they could write a letter to or from
the front.
The day would consist of
different checkpoints
that would connect with
the winter war theme.
A balance was sought
between actions and
letting the students
themselves do
something that wasn’t
too demanding for them
The third checkpoint was a tent
that had a medical emergency site
were students were given a briefing on
how the evacuation of a soldier was
done in the war. They also got to carry
stretchers with a dummy on them that
represented a wounded soldier which
included a sawn off foot of a dummy
soldier with makeup added for the
effect of blood.
The fourth checkpoint was a
possibility to talk with veterans of the
war, the students had prepared
questions in advance and the veterans
had read them and prepared answers,
there was also a chance for additional
questions and conversation as well.
The fifth checkpoint was drawing
how you imagined the war to be like.
Finally, the sixth checkpoint was to
find answers in the museum to ten
questions about the war.
Each of these checkpoints would
take 25 minutes and then the group
would move to the next. In the middle
of the day was a lunch break
consisting of pea soup and some hard
bread – the food that most soldiers ate
Articles
at the frontline. When half of the
children were eating the other half
watched a documentary about the
winter war that lasted about 40
minutes. After the food the day would
continue with the checkpoints.
The checkpoints connected to
different themes of the war and
different subjects that are taught in
the school as well. For example the
checkpoint where a letter was written
was obviously connected to English
studies and the checkpoint with
drawing was a link with art classes.
However some checkpoints were more
connected to the theme of Winter War.
For example the first checkpoint was
completely built around the war and
the other checkpoints to a different
degree. Especially the drawing
checkpoint war conceived partly out of
necessity for the students for
something to do, but it least connected
with the theme of war and was noticed
by students as well. The ten questions
of the war were to get the students
acquainted with the museum and also,
to a small degree, to measure how
much they had learned during the day.
What we were lacking to some degree
was the view from the Russian side of
the conflict. Although the fact was
emphasised that most who are in war
are forced to take part by telling about
the letters written by the Russian
soldiers from the front it was
unfortunately not fully realized during
the day. The problem was organizing
this kind of checkpoint for the day with
a tight schedule. This will surely be
one of the focus points in the future
projects.
The days were a success with
extremely positive feedback from the
students. They felt that this kind of
learning was a great way to get to
know about the war and its
circumstances. Especially they liked
the conversation with the veterans and
voted that to be the most interesting
thing during the whole day. The
students had prepared questions in
advance to the veterans. Most of these
questions focused on everyday life at
the front such as was it very cold, what
kind of food did you eat, were you
The checkpoints
connected to different
themes of the war and
different subjects that
are taught in the school
as well
afraid and such. Although the
conversation was occasionally one
sided as the veterans told their story
and the students listened it was still
for many students a memorable
moment.
The feedback also contained some
negative comments about the day but
these were mainly directed at the food
and weather conditions. Although the
students were warned to dress warmly
for the day as it would include being
outside, many of them were,
nevertheless, underdressed for the
occasion. As for the food, the pea soup
was not a favourite among teenagers
and eating it from an army field kit
didn’t improve their appetite. As could
be expected some students criticized
the drawing of the war as having
nothing to do with the theme of the
day. In retrospect that was the case as
we did not have a clear view on how
this would connect with the theme of
war apart from letting the children
perhaps express what they might see
the war as in a graphic form. As for
other negative comments only a few
were directed at the events of the day.
However the first checkpoint,
operated by me personally, did bring
out some negative response from
peace organizations. The checkpoint
included handling a Second World War
era deactivated rifle under
supervision. The children got to feel
how heavy the weapon was and so
forth. Some refused this part of the
training and they were not forced to
touch the gun. In the same context I
told them that in the Winter War some
refused to carry a rifle out of ethical
conviction, but many of them were still
forced to go to the frontline. This was
also reported in a news article of the
event in Finland’s biggest newspaper
Helsingin Sanomat. The article
prompted a response from peace
organizations that was published in
the opinion page of the newspaper a
couple of days later. The opinion
criticized the museum and the school
as they were grooming students for
war and didn’t properly handle the
situation were a child refused to
handle the weapon. They had wanted a
bigger emphasis on telling the story of
those people who refused to fight
against the Russians and wanted
peace to be taught in schools as part
of the curriculum. The school
responded later on in the opinion page
by pointing out that there were several
veterans talking about the reality of
the war and that when teaching
history you have to tell of all aspects of
the matter. The conversation did not
continue beyond this. However it
emphasised an important point of
military museums in Finland and
indeed about the military museums
general. The Artillery Museum of
Finland is not a pacifistic museum
that holds the ideology that a country
does not have a right to defend itself in
a case of war. We hold the view that to
defend our country from a foreign
invader you have the right to defend it
with military force. Despite this we do
not encourage anybody to make war
and we bring out the horrible
consequences of the war to all sides of
the conflict. The story of Finland in
war is naturally told from the Finnish
point of view but not in a
propagandistic way.
The end result from organizing a
day such as this was that the students
enjoyed themselves and, as one parent
told us later, this was the only thing
that they talked about for the next
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couple of days at home. The lesson we
learned for the museum is that you
need to carefully think of the message
that you want to convey about war and
make sure that it is properly
understood by the students. Drama
can work very well in a setting like the
museum but it needs proper
information to run alongside it as well.
The difficulty is when some students
don’t understand that you are, for
example, playing a role as an officer
that trains them for a war. Even
though you are in a uniform and
explain the situation it still baffles
some students that are still quite
young. As one student said why did the
officer need to shout at us and be so
mean? This could have been the first
time in their life that somebody
actually shouted at them and was
generally perhaps not the most
approachable person. This reaction in
a way was unavoidable because it
would be quite unimpressive in the
middle of the situation to try to explain
that this is only acting. Nevertheless
we should have made a greater
emphasis on defusing the day with the
students and talk about the
happenings and the war itself with the
students. It must always be
remembered that most student’s
knowledge of history at this age can be
quite poor and they would need strong
background information before the day
starts at the museum. Even an
historical event like the Winter War
that is, in Finland, part of the national
context is still relatively poorly known
by the students. Some classes had
studied more about the war and they
got into the day’s theme more easily
then those classes that hadn’t covered
the subject in school. Teaching about
war is always a delicate business, but
the work that we put in to this project
paid off by the student’s enthusiasm of
the day and perhaps a greater
understanding of the war itself.
Museums are well suited for this kind
of projects and we will continue to
have them in the future as well.
lauri.haavisto@tykistomuseo.fi
www.tykistomuseo.fi
The end result from
organizing a day such
as this was that the
students enjoyed
themselves and, as one
parent told us later, this
was the only thing that
they talked about for
the next couple of days
at home
Articles
Re-enactment and arms, armour and
military history, a personal view
David J Blackmore
H
ave you ever wondered why you
mount a horse from the left hand
side? Perhaps not, but the answer
became blindingly obvious to me the
first time I mounted a horse wearing a
sword. This happened at a reenactment many years ago, back in
the late seventies. At the time I was
still a student only just beginning to
harbour ambitions of a career in
museums. It was also something that I
tended to keep fairly quiet about as
there was a sense that re-enactment
was not what serious arms, armour
and military history students did.
Re-enactment, however, was what
got me interested in arms, armour
and military history in the first place. I
am also pleased that re-enactment
has become a more or less accepted
branch of the subject, with many
museums hosting visits by reenactment groups or even developing
their own, in-house re-enactors or
interpreters.
The main effect of re-enactment
on my own studies has been that I
have concentrated on the periods that
I have re-enacted, thus my first
endeavours centred around the
Have you ever wondered
why the 18th century
British Land Pattern
Musket has a slight
swelling in the stock just
behind where the
ramrod groove ends?
English Civil Wars on the mid-17th
century. It has also meant that my
interest has been in the weapons and
armour of the ordinary soldier, not the
fine products of the mastercraftsman. Furthermore I have
combined an interest in the objects
with an interest in how they were used.
It is in this particular aspect of the
subject that the closest link with reenactment has occurred.
I can’t say that re-enactment has
led to any earth shattering discoveries,
more that I have had a series of
experiences that have helped me to
understand the arms, armour and
events of the past and have also led
me to ask certain questions. A few
examples will explain what I mean.
In 1992 I took part in an event to
mark the first battle of the English
Civil War at Powick Bridge in 1642.
This battle had been primarily a
cavalry battle and I rode along with
over a hundred others. I can still recall
how I could feel the ground shaking
through my own horse as we all
advanced at the trot and then the
canter. I also witnessed at first hand
the difficulties of command and
control over what amounted to four
small troops. Multiplying that up to
cavalry numbered in the thousands
certainly gave a lot of food for thought.
When historians blithely describe
large scale cavalry manoeuvres they
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seem to give little thought to just how
these things were accomplished.
From 1989 to 1995 I had the
honour to be the Lord General of the
Roundhead Association, giving me
command of up to 600 soldiers,
cavalry and artillery. Of course this
does not compare with doing it for
real, but short of doing it for real it
was the only way I was going to get the
experience of manoeuvring that
number of troops in the field with all
its attendant problems. For instance,
when thinking about command and
control on the battlefield how many
historians think about the noise
levels? I have had to shout at the top of
my voice into the ear of someone
standing next to me in order to make
myself heard.
Have you ever wondered why the
18th century British Land Pattern
Musket has a slight swelling in the
stock just behind where the ramrod
groove ends? It is simply to help the
soldier grip the musket when loading
and avoid the soldier’s hand slipping
up until it is gripping the stock over
the groove, something it is easy to do
when tired and if it is raining and the
stock gets slippery. But if you do that
and then return the rammer quickly
and vigorously, as you do when
platoon firing, you will drive the end of
the rammer into the web of skin
between thumb and index finger. I can
show you the scar.
As for platoon firing itself, I can tell
you from experience that standing and
firing ten rounds in five minutes is
quite possible, but very, very hard
work. I can add that if you have a
bayonet fitted it completely changes
the balance of a musket and makes it
even harder work.
All this playing at soldiers has left
me with nothing but the highest
respect for those who have done it for
real. It has also meant that my interest
has been in how things were done,
why were they done the way they were,
how were the weapons used? From
the English Civil Wars to the Battle of
Waterloo British infantry has a
reputation for producing effective
firepower that wins battles. My
I can’t say that
re-enactment has led to
any earth shattering
discoveries, more that I
have had a series of
experiences that have
helped me to
understand the arms,
armour and events of
the past and have also
led me to ask certain
questions
interest in the how and why has led
me to undertake a PhD at
Huddersfield University in partnership
with The Royal Armouries looking at
this very subject. So, in my case, reenactment has led me to study arms,
armour and military history at the
highest level. In this I am not alone.
There are an increasing number of
people who have come from reenactment as a hobby to study our
subject and make valuable
contributions to our knowledge and
understanding. A few academics have
also travelled in the opposite direction.
Re-enactment can help us to
understand the how and why of arms,
armour and military history. But it also
needs to be approached by museums
and academics with care. I make no
bones about it, it is great fun and a
great hobby, which is why most reenactors do it. The knowledge level of
re-enactors varies from the doctoral
level to the negligible level, between
groups and within groups. If you are
considering using them you need to be
very careful and clear about what you
want and selective in who you use.
However, used properly re-enactment
can illuminate our subject and engage
with the public in a very effective way.
And if it captures the interest of a
young person who goes on to study
our subject, even up to PhD level, is
that not worth the effort?
Articles
An armet in the
Legermuseum,
Delft, Netherlands
Jan Piet Puype
Former curator of old arms and armour of
the Legermuseum
T
his iron helmet from the early 16th
century is called an armet. Armets
have a complicated construction
because of the desire to completely
enclose the head and yet enable the
wearer to turn it laterally, together
with the helmet. Because of this it
needed to unfold and open out if one
wanted to put it on or take it off. Other
types of visored helmets were wide
enough so as to be simply put on, and
removed from, the head.
A further peculiar feature of the
armet is the disk mounted on a little
stalk on the back of the neck. Arms
historians are still not sure what this
neck disk was intended for. Some
think that it protected the many joints
in the rear of the helmet while others
have suggested that it provided a hold
for some sort of textile wrap around
the helmet.
The visor of this helmet is of a type
known as a bellows visor; it is
normally found on other types of
contemporary helmets, not on armets.
The question whether this
combination is historically authentic or
was put together at a much later
stage, for instance by a dealer or a
collector, is difficult to answer. On the
one hand various parts, for instance
the visor and the pair of cheek pieces
are a bit out of alignment and do not
close properly. (The same is true with
a number of armets in other
collections.) However, on the other
hand the constituent parts seem
authentic and all have the same
patina. We consider, therefore, that
the visor, although it may be an
improvised addition, is contemporary
to the helmet.
The armet, inventory number 050758,
was purchased in 1950.
Height: 322 mm; width: 208 mm;
length: 255 mm. Weight not
determined but about 3 kg.
This helmet will be included in a book
on Medieval and Renaissance arms
and armour of the Legermuseum
written by the author and Harm
Stevens to be published in 2010.
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‘For the instruction and amusement’:
guns for George, Prince of Wales
Ruth Rhynas Brown
Independent Scholar
I
n an age when we debate whether
children should be allowed to play with
toy guns, it may seem strange that in the
past, parents considered it their duty to
train young boys in the of use weapons.
Learning about military matters was seen
as an essential part of a prince’s education
and they were often given their own toy
cannons and weapons (Brown 2004). One
of the most impressive gifts for a British
prince is currently mounted along the East
Terrace at Windsor Castle, a magnificent
battery, cast for George Prince of Wales in
honour of his sixth birthday.
In September 1767, George III
intimated to Colonel Desaguliers of
the Royal Artillery that he ‘wished to
have 21 brass guns of 1 lb calibre with
travelling carriages for the instruction
and amusement of HRH the Prince of
Wales, and that they were to be
finished in as private manner as the
nature of the work would admit of.’ Sir
Charles Frederick, Surveyor General
for the Board of Ordnance, wrote to
the Marquis of Granby, then MasterGeneral of the Ordnance, for
permission to give the necessary
orders about them, since ‘as they are
all to be cast and mounted, it will take
some months to perform’(Granby
correspondence, vol 2, 292).
A week later, 15 September 1767
Sir Charles Frederick wrote to the
Marquis of Granby that he had ‘given
orders about the toy guns which I
spoke of, and hope it will meet with
your approval, though the signification
to me has only been verbal’ (Granby
correspondence, vol 2, 292).
This verbal order would cause
Above: Overall of terrace
Below: One of the guns
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One of the most
impressive gifts for a
British prince is currently
mounted along the East
Terrace at Windsor Castle
Left: Detail of vent
Right: Detail of coat of arms
Below: Side Elevation of a One Pounder
Brass Gun on an Iron Carriage, Drawn by
Lt. John H. Caddy, 1828.
The Royal Collection © 2010 Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II. Photographer A C
Cooper
problems in a few years time. But at
present the problem was who would
actually cast these guns. Work at the
Royal Brass Foundry in Woolwich had
been at a standstill for some years
since the Ordnance was in dispute
with its founder, Andrew Schalch,
forcing them to order their brass guns
from two Southwark founders, William
Bowen and Richard Gilpin. It is also
clear from the later history that this
order was given to Gilpin.
Richard Gilpin was a brass and
shot-founder at Stoney Street,
Southwark, who supplied brass guns,
mortars and howitzers to the Board of
Ordnance and the English East India
Company between 1751 and 1770, as
well as other brasswork, such as bells,
fittings, and pistol barrels for carcass
shot. In addition Gilpin had an iron
foundry where he cast round shot,
truck wheels, shells and cast-iron
fittings. Many of his guns have survived
and can be seen in collections and on
display around the world.
Between late April and July 1768,
the Ordnance officials travelled down
to Woolwich regularly to supervise the
proof of the Prince’s guns, described
as brass one pounders, 3½ feet long
which were sent up in small batches (
WO 51/236, 153v; WO 47/71, 238v).
However proofing the barrels was
not the end of the story; the guns
needed to elaborate engraved. Shortly
after the first of the battery was
proofed in April 1768, the Ordnance
contracted with the sculptor, William
Collins, to engrave the guns with
appropriate motives. However, there
was a problem:
‘Mr Hartwell having by Letter of
yesterday signified, that as it will be
impossible for Mr Collins the
Engraver, to Engrave all the Brass
Guns, ordered to be cast and mounted
for His Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, against the 12 August next (the
Prince’s Birth Day) he had in
obedience to the Surveyor General’s
Order, made enquiry for one capable
of engraving some of the said Guns,
and had found one Edmund Marshall
(who is esteemed a very good
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Workman) that will undertake to
engrave a part of them at £7.7. 0.
each, but to be paid in ready money for
the same , which he is of the opinion is
as low as they can be got done for, in a
Workmanlike manner as one Person
who came to look at the said Guns
would not undertake to engrave them
for less than £12 –12-0 each gun.
The same was approved and
ordered to be paid from time to time
by the Messenger, upon Mr Hartwell’s
Certificate and a Bill to be made out
when the whole was completed’ (WO
47/71, 184r).
Despite this, Collins, and possibly
his colleague worked ‘early and late
from 9th May to 4th August in engraving
Brass Guns for his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales’. His request for extra
payment was approved in October 1768
(WO 47/72, 109v).
Once the engraving had been
settled, the carriages and accessories
needed to be attended to and in June
1768 Hartwell put that in motion, when
the Board of Ordnance agreed to his
request ‘to be supplied with the
several Particulars therein mentioned
towards compleating the Guns and
Carriages for His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales’(WO 47/71, 215v).
The guns, carriages and
accessories were ready for the
celebrations of the Prince of Wales 6th
birthday on 12 August 1768 and
arrangements were made for their
transport to Richmond, where the
young prince had an establishment,
and the indefatigable Mr Hartwell
went himself to oversee the work (WO
Above left: Detail of dolphins
Above right: Detail of Prince of Wales
feather and motto
Below:Carriage
George IV’s ‘toy guns’
have surely continued to
give ‘instruction and
amusement’ to the many
princes and princesses
that have inhabited
Windsor castle since
47 72, 77v; WO 51/240, 155). No doubt
the young prince and his brothers
were delighted by the gift of 21
beautiful brass cannons.
However in amongst all the flurry
of the delivery, one bill was not paidthe founder’s - and in June 1771
Gilpin’s widow wrote regarding a
number of outstanding bills (WO
47/77, 368). This process dragged on
and it was not until January 1772 the
Ordnance ordered a report on the
missing ‘Warrant of Justification for
21- 1 pounder Brass guns’ (WO 47/79,
124r). A fortnight later they received a
report stating ‘that some 1 Pounder
Brass Guns were proved by the Proof
Masters for the Prince of Wales the
number of which they know not being
sent away as soon as proved’ (WO
47/79, 141r). Finally on 27 March 1772
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ropes with lion faces on the axles. The
coins have rosettes on the knobs.
It is likely that the accessories on
the steps to the royal library in the
Round Tower belong to the battery,
despite the sponges having leather
bags with 1 ½ pounder painted on
rather than one. They consist of 21
sponges and rammers as well as
worms and rammers.
Not everyone thought the cannons
were an asset to the gardens; the
horticultural writer, William Sawrey
Gilpin (no relation to Richard) claimed
that in his opinion ‘the cannon that are
placed along the East terrace are quite
out of character with the Flower
Garden’. However George IV’s ‘toy
guns’ have surely continued to give
‘instruction and amusement’ to the
many princes and princesses that
have inhabited Windsor castle since.
Above: Detail of wheel
Thomas Hartwell himself wrote ‘that
there were 21 Brass Guns 1 Pounders
cast by Mr Gilpin agreeable to a
pattern approved by the Board which
were proved in 1768 and sent up to the
Carriage Yard where they were
completed with Carriages for his Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales and that
they were now at His Majesty’s
Gardens at Richmond’. After which the
Ordnance agreed to issue a warrant
for them (WO 47/79, 188). This bill was
issued on 27 March 1772 for 21 brass 1
pounder guns, weighing in total 34 cwt
2 quarters and 2 pounds for ‘the sum
of One hundred and two pounds, seven
shillings and six pence’ (WO 51).
This may have reminded Hartwell
about the guns, since a few months
later, after the Prince’s 10th birthday,
he reported ‘that 21 small travelling
carriages formerly made for His Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales have be
sent from Richmond to the Tower to be
repaired, but as the carriages are
quite decayed they must be made new
& that the Guns and elevating screws
be wanted to be fresh fitted into the
Carriages’ (WO 47/80, 126v).
The guns themselves are based on
the then current artillery bronze pattern,
but with more elaborate decoration.
They are of one pounder calibre, 3 ½ feet
in length and each of the 21 guns is
numbered on the right trunnion.
Each one pounder has a plain
cascable with narrow fillet. Round the
vent are the lion and the unicorn, with
flags and military trophies. On the
first reinforce is the royal coat of arms,
with the Order of the Garter and more
flags. The dolphins are in the shape of
true dolphins, with open mouths and
eyes. The chase has the Prince of
Wales‘s feathers and motto- Ich Dienon a scroll. The engraving on the guns
is particularly outstanding, as would
be expected from a craftsman like
William Collins.
The guns eventually found a
permanent home when George IV
redeveloped Windsor Castle and the
East Terrace was formed. However at
least one appears to have been sent to
the Royal Horse Armoury in the Tower
of London since a drawing of it dated
1828 exists in the Library at Windsor.
(RL 27558) The redisplay at Windsor
may have been the occasion of
providing the guns with new cast iron
carriages by the ‘Carriage Department
in 1826. The carriages are decorated
with roses and bay leaves. The wheels
have bundles of fasces and coiled
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my colleagues at
the Royal Collections for their help in
preparing this article: first Simon
Metcalf, the Queen’s Armourer, who
arranged our visit and conducted us
about: to Jonathan Marsden who
eased us through the regulations for
publication; Kate Heard in the Royal
Library for helping with illustrations,
Stephen Patterson and Katy Holyoake.
All photographs of the guns were taken
by the author and reproduced with
permission of the Royal Collection.
Bibliography
Public Record Office: WO 47 and WO
51 series
Published works
Brown R R 2004 ‘Pretty little cannon,
neatly mounted’: artillery for British
Princes’. In Royal Armouries and their
Collections, Stockholm.
Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts 1889 The manuscripts of
His Grace the Duke of Rutland, KG,
preserved at Belvoir Castle, vol 2.
For more information on arms and
armour in the Royal Collection:
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGal
lery/category.asp?category=286
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk
Articles
A 19th century Spanish shot bag (perdigonera)
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Donald J LaRocca
T
his shot bag (perdigonera) is
noteworthy for being unusual as a
type, very well made, and in
remarkably good condition. It
comprises a decorated black iron
nozzle attached to an elongated flat
pouch or bag of tan leather. The
sculptural nozzle, in the form of a dog,
is a very good example of Spanish iron
chiseling as it relates to the decoration
of luxury firearms in the 19th century.
The shot bag was generously donated
to the Museum in 2008 by Mr Eric
Vaule, a long-time friend and
supporter of the Arms and Armor
Department. According to Mr Vaule,
the shot bag previously belonged to
the well known firearms collector Clay
P Bedford (1903-1988).
The nozzle is chiseled in the round
in the form of a hunting dog lying with
its paws tucked under its body and its
head resting on its forepaws. The
rump of the dog is joined to an oval
iron cap, to which the top of the bag is
attached. The dog's eyes are
highlighted in gold. The rim and top of
the cap are damascened in gold with
floral and scroll motifs. On the top of
the rim there is a raised button of gray
iron chiseled with a simple blossom
motif. Pushing the button down causes
the dog's mouth to open and
simultaneously seals the base of the
nozzle in the interior, allowing only the
amount of shot contained in the nozzle
to be poured out. On the side of the
rim there is an iron catch, which
allows the nozzle and rim to pivot to
the side on an iron base plate so that
the bag can be filled with shot. At the
top of the bag where it meets the
nozzle cap there is a braided ring of
leather and a single short strap with
an oval buckle of black iron decorated
to match the nozzle. The bag widens
gradually from the nozzle to its base. A
stitched seam runs the length of the
outside of the bag. Near the bottom of
the bag there is a horizontal slot on
one side, creating a narrow envelope
5½ in. (14 cm) long, and a
corresponding expandable pouch on
the opposite side, held closed by a
leather lace. At the very base there is a
tab of leather ending in a short strap,
which is pierced by three holes to
receive the tongue of a buckle. The
shot bag is in very good condition
overall; the leather being strong and
still supple and the iron free from
corrosion.
Above left. Shot Bag (Perdigonera).
Spanish, ca. 1830-40. Leather, iron, and
gold. L. 50½ in. (128.2 cm); W. 3½ in. (8.2
cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, Gift of Eric Vaule, 2008
(2008.114)
Above. The shot bag as currently displayed
with Spanish and Italian firearms and
accessories in the permanent galleries of
the Arms and Armor Department in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Below left. Detail, front of nozzle
Below right. Detail, nozzle in profile.
Dr. James D Lavin kindly pointed
out (oral communication, 12 March
2008) that this type of elongated shot
bag is called a perdigonera or saco de
perdigones, and that this style, with a
decorated nozzle, is also found in a
cased set by the gunmaker Francisco
Gutiérrez, made ca. 1830-35, in the
Lazaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid,
which is referred to in his article,
Armas de Fuego Madrileñas en el
Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Goya: Revista
de Arte, no. 193-195, (July-Dec., 1986),
pp. 114-119.
Articles
Hermann Göring’s white summer peaked cap
Ilse Albers-Bogaerts
A
s mentioned in a previous issue of
ICOMAM magazine, the Royal
Military Museum (RMM) in Brussels
acquired General Field Marshal
Hermann Göring’s (12/01/1893
Rosenheim – 15/10/1946, Nuremberg)
white summer peaked cap (German:
Schirmmütze) in 2008. He of course
was chancellor of the German Reich
during the Second World War. As a
federal scientific institution we wish to
describe the mechanisms of German
Nazi dictatorship, which influenced the
lives of millions of Europeans (19331945), through top collection pieces.
The Luftwaffemuseum in Berlin
displays Göring’s grey-blue air force
service dress and the Paris Musée des
Invalides showcases the personal flag
designed by the chancellor of the
Reich himself; the RMM will now in
turn present Hermann Göring’s white
summer peaked cap in its European
Forum of Contemporary Conflicts.
Göring was one step short of
absolute power in Nazi Germany.
Needless to say, his personal
belongings have historical interest. The
consideration that Göring personifies a
criminal and dictatorial regime does
not annihilate the fact that this piece of
head-gear represents history. As a
personal item this acquisition
possesses considerable historical
value and might therefore interest our
public. We are indeed dealing with the
tangible remains of an era in which the
lives of all Belgians were determined
by Nazi dictatorship.
Objects like this one do have an
influence on the public, as they
certainly lure museum and military
enthusiasts. The physical presence of
such top pieces can also
counterbalance Internet users, who
usually limit themselves to watching
pictures of collection pieces. Putting a
collection on the net undeniably is a
good idea, as it increases accessibility,
but that of course cannot ever and
should not ever replace an actual
museum visit. A pro-active collection
policy therefore is and remains one of
our priorities.
Göring undoubtedly was a key
figure, with a personal hand in the
development of the NSDAP (National
Socialist Democratic Workers’ party),
in the preparations for the Second
World War, in the development of the
air force and finally in the
implementation of the holocaust
policy, Hitler’s ultimate solution for
the Jewish question (Endlösung der
Judenfrage).
Göring became a member of
Hitler’s Nazi party in 1922 and
obtained the title of chancellor of the
Reich in 1940. This title was custommade for him by the Führer, as a
reward for his accomplishments
during the Blitzkrieg against the
Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain
and France.
Göring had painstakingly built his
key position during the interwar
period, first as the leader of the Sturm
Abteilung (1923), later as a member of
parliament for the NSDAP (1928), and
another four years later as the
Reichstag chairman. In 1933, as
minister of the Interior, he created the
Gestapo (the secret police in Nazi
Germany) and he became Hitler’s
main advisor in 1935. That same year
he created a new military organization
in preparation of future air wars and
became commander in chief of the
Luftwaffe.
As chancellor of the Reich in 1940
he was at the height of his power, but
after the Battle of Britain the Führer
took some distance. Göring kept his
title, but his influence lessened. He
was sentenced to death at the 1946
Nuremberg trial, but committed
suicide in his cell.
Many biographies have been
written about Göring or his complex
personality and it is not our goal to
add to the list. In this article we only
wish to motivate the RMM acquisition
policy and to place the cap in its textile
and historical context.
Fig. 1: General Field Marshal Hermann
Göring’s white summer peaked cap or
service cap (German Schirmmütze),
commander in chief of the German air
force.
Copyright Andreas Thies
Fig. 2: Picture of General Field Marshal H.
Göring of the Luftwaffe, in his summer
service dress with white peaked cap, about
1938, accompanied by Emma Göring
(white ensemble), prince Paul of
Yugoslavia and his wife princess Olga.
Copyright Andreas Thies
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Fig. 3: Silk lining with golden stamp
representing Göring’s personal crest.
Under the crest, one finds a
manufacturer’s label (the Stechbarth
company in Berlin). Their client’s name is
written in black ink: GFM. H. Göring.
Copyright KLM
Fig. 4: Combed wool in simple weaving
Copyright KLM
Fig. 5: The chemical additives in the white
work gloves glow under the UV light. The
white fabric of the cap does not reflect the
light, which points to pre-war fabric.
Copyright KLM
An important criterion for the
purchase is the authenticity of the
peaked cap. It belonged to Göring in
person. He probably had it made in
1938, after his appointment as General
Field Marshal (February 4, 1938) and
stopped wearing it after his
appointment as chancellor of the
Reich (July 19, 1940). The lining does
not present the official Luftwaffe
stamp, but rather a golden stamp with
Göring’s personal crest.
Göring personally designed his
crest. He used existing heraldic signs
linked to the Göring family, an old
Norwegian name. He deleted the
medieval helmet and replaced it with
spread eagles’ wings on a backdrop of
leaves. In between the wings he
added an arm in armour holding a
laurel wreath.
Under the manufacturer’s label
‘Stechbart, Tauentzienstr. 6 Berlin’ one
finds the owner’s name in black ink on
a cloth label: Gfm. H. Göring. A third
proof of authenticity is the hand
written note on auction house
stationary by Edda Göring, H. Göring’s
daughter. She testifies to the
authenticity of the item, certifying that
it belonged to her father and that he
wore it between 1938 and 1940.
The fact that this is a personal item
can be deduced not only from the lack
of a Luftwaffe stamp, but also from the
Objects like this one do
have an influence on the
public, as they certainly
lure museum and
military enthusiasts
identification. In this case, the cap also
has to be identified through its shape
and fit Luftwaffe uniform rules .
Right from its very beginning (26
February 1935), the German air force
listed a number of uniform rules and
regulations, with a white summer
peaked cap for officers . High-ranking
officers received gold embroidered
insignias. The air force sales
department in Berlin distributed the
caps. For official caps the air force
mostly called on the prestigious ‘Erel’
company. According to the 1935
uniform regulations the summer cap
was to be worn between April 1st and
September 30. Overseas or in
Mediterranean areas it was of course
to be worn all year.
Göring’s air force was independent
from the navy or the ground troops
and counted three major divisions:
flight troops, anti-aircraft defence and
airborne signalling troops. These were
further subdivided in smaller units,
such as air borne troops, air police
and air engineers, medical corps and
several divisions assigned to duties
similar to those of the ground troops.
Every unit had a specific distinctive
colour . In order to identify various
specialist categories, the colour
scheme was extended in 1935 and
shoulder insignia were introduced
simultaneously.
fabric. An official summer cap was
manufactured in honeycomb cotton .
However, this summer cap is made of
unbleached felt linen with a silk lining.
An analysis of the fabric confirms
that the white linen dates back to the
interwar period. In the thirties, the
additives used to bleach wool did not
yet contain fluorine. Under UV lights
we therefore do not see the
characteristic glow, as opposed to the
white work gloves we put alongside.
We can in that way ascertain that the
fabric is authentic.
Certificates of authenticity should
however be confirmed by positive
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Generals always wore white
(without any secondary colours). As his
men had to be able to face the most
diverse situations, Göring (with his
personal interest in uniforms) had
ordered more than 16 types of
uniforms. The Luftwaffe uniform was
characterized by its grey-blue colour,
with the Luftwaffe emblem worn on all
head-gear and on the right hand side
of the jacket at breast height .
Although the typical Luftwaffe
colour was a greyish blue, a white
summer uniform with a white peaked
cap had also been designed for
officers . According to the regulations
the white peaked cap could be worn
with either the service, dress or
parade uniforms.
The design and fabric were
identical for all ranks , with a black
lacquered rounded peak topped by
black galloon. A black, silver or gold
hat-guard indicated rank.
The greyish blue or white peaked
caps were worn both in peace and war
times, in combination with the
matching uniform. A mix was however
also possible: the grey-blue pants
could be worn with the white jacket and
with either the white or grey-blue cap.
Both the Reich and air force
emblems on the general’s cap were
gold embroidered. The summer cap
was trimmed with gold piping, sewn
on the top and the bottom of the cap’s
crown. The hat-guard consisted of two
gold braids (metal wire), adjustable in
length. The braids consisted of two
twisted metal wires. The hat-guard
was attached by means of two gold
buttons.
Comparison between the above
description and the features of our
new acquisition confirms the
identification: white summer peaked
cap for Luftwaffe commissioned
officers, mod. 1935. The cap’s saddle
shape is quite striking and there is a
difference in height between front and
back. The front top part of the crown
presents a white badge, with a gold
embroidered eagle. As we already
saw, white was the distinctive colour
for generals and gold embroidery and
gold braids were exclusive to
Göring personally
designed his crest. He
used existing heraldic
signs linked to the
Göring family, an old
Norwegian name
commissioned officers. The story goes
that Göring personally designed the
German air force emblem
(Hoheitszeichen). The eagle, the
German Reich’s traditional emblem,
also was the NSDAP emblem as of
1933. Initially, the air force used the
stylized NSDAP eagle, with a swastika
in its talons. However, Göring
preferred a flying eagle with spread
wings, the swastika in its left paw and
the right paw in a threatening attitude.
This emblem was to be worn above the
right breast pocket of all uniform
coats and pilot jackets; a smaller
version was displayed on all headgear. An element important for dating
items is the eagle’s tail. In the years
prior to the war, its feathers point
downwards; just before and during the
war the feathers are slightly unfurled.
The embroidered eagle’s tail on
Göring’s peaked cap refers to the
period just prior to the outbreak of the
Second World War.
The white crown, worn high on the
head, rests on a black wool ribbon.
This consists of a single piece and is
sewn together in the back.
The officer’s rank can de deduced
from the German cockade on the
black ribbon: red inner circle,
white/silver middle circle and black
outer circle, in an oak wreath, flanked
by gold embroidered stylized wings.
On 16 May 1935 the air force made
this cockade official and it differed
slightly from other military units. The
German national colours of course
remained identical, but the circles
were piped with either silver or gold
thread, depending on the wearer’s
rank.
On some pieces of air force headgear the cockade was presented as a
separate emblem; on others, an oak
wreath was added, flanked by stylized
wings. This clearly is the case with
Göring’s cap. The white service cap is
equipped with a rounded black
lacquered leather peak, on top of
which rests a gold hat-guard. This runs
ear to ear and is attached by means of
flat gold buttons on either side.
We can conclude that the peaked
cap we bought completely fits the air
force uniform regulations dated 26
February 1935.
As we are dealing with a General
Field Marshal’s cap, it could be
interesting to trace the etymology of
the words ‘field marshal’. Originally
‘marshal’ meant stable hand or
groom. A ‘field marshal’ was a groom
with the rank of sergeant major.
Mähre (English: mare) signifies horse,
Scale stands for groom, Feld is a
collective name for all soldiers. A
marshal used to be the person in
charge of the horses and the stables.
The French maréchal des écuries
still is an equerry. At medieval courts
the marshal (the king’s first equerry)
developed into the first ranking court
official. He eventually was put in charge
of the entire royal household, including
horses and horsemen, and also became
commander in chief of the royal army.
With the Nazis the marshal was a
distinctive rank and the term is to this
day used in the French and German
armies. Göring first was General Field
Marshal (1938) and later became
chancellor of the Reich (1940), ranking
immediately below the Führer himself.
The most common theory about
the origins of Göring’s saddle shaped
peaked cap is to be found in the shape
of the Prussian Landwehr officers’
high cap, worn from 1813 onwards .
This cap was first designed and worn
Articles
by students. The Landwehr regiments
were constituted in 1813 and students
massively enrolled. The distinctive
peaked cap was taken over. Due to the
on-going wars over the previous
decades, the state coffers were terribly
strained. It proved next to impossible
to equip the enormous numbers of
volunteers with regulated uniforms
and the then popular shako.
Field Marshal G.L. von Blücher and
his officers wore the cap at Waterloo in
1815. They used it as a field cap,
replacing the cumbersome shako.
According to H. Toornvliet the Russian
army copied the idea, adapting it over
the years. All through the 19th century
these characteristic high peaked caps
were the Prussian and Russian
armies’ service head-gear. In 1856 the
Royal Navy officers started wearing it
too. In the 20th century it was adopted
by naval and air force officers
worldwide, as it was both practical and
handsome.
Göring also wore the white summer
peaked cap quite often. Numerous
pictures show him sporting his white
cap, in combination with either the
white summer uniform or the grey-blue
air force uniform and even with his
trade-mark sky-blue uniform.
Uniforms and head coverings, with
their embroidered emblems, colourful
collars, badges and epaulets, are
designed to indicate hierarchy within
the army. The aim is to identify the
wearers immediately. Göring
determined the colours and cuts of all
Luftwaffe uniforms, starting with his
own. In other words, he was
responsible for the grey-blue and
white uniforms, the gold embroidery,
the flying eagle symbol, his personal
flag, etc.
That is exactly why we also need to
make a psychological and social
analysis of the white summer cap. A
piece of clothing tells quite a lot about
both the wearer’s social class and his
state of mind . A piece of clothing only
becomes meaningful when placed
within a social circle. A military
uniform is a perfect example of a
garment bearing a readable code and
indicating its bearer’s hierarchical
The most common
theory about the origins
of Göring’s saddle
shaped peaked cap is to
be found in the shape of
the Prussian Landwehr
officers’ high cap
position within the organisation.
Interestingly enough, Göring
sometimes threw his own uniform
regulations to the winds and now and
again wore sky-blue instead of the
grey-blue, a fur cape, etc.
He had special uniforms custommade and these did not follow the
regulations. He undoubtedly wished to
draw attention to his own self . In that
way, he visually distinguished himself
and indirectly told the group that he
occupied a special place within the
military organisation. He put himself
above everybody else, as he
appropriated the privilege of dressing
differently. He stressed the fact that he
belonged to the Nazi elite, that he was
powerful, that within the military
group he was free to express a
personal opinion. In that way, he
established himself as a leader.
Marc-Alain Descamps wrote about
the psychological meaning and
significance of wool. He associates
wool with ‘masculinity, sturdiness and
protection’. Not surprisingly, this
fabric is regularly used in military
dress. The thermal qualities of wool
also account for much of course. That
same author also associates woollen
items with ‘tradition and culture’.
The psychological significance of
white is firmly established in our
western and catholic civilisation.
Descamps and Deslandres equate the
colour not only with ‘cleanliness’ and
‘purity’ (cf. white bridal dresses or
christening robes), but also with
‘richness’ and ‘luxury’. Moreover, the
colour can be worn with all others and
never clashes.
Göring sensed the meaning of
white. That is why he combined the
white cap with different uniforms.
History teaches us that the elite will
always ridicule a general trend or
fashion followed by a majority. The
happy few will then start following a
different dress code.
And that might exactly be what
Göring did: by not wearing the regular
uniform he indicated that he belonged
to the absolute Luftwaffe top. It was his
way of elevating himself to the elite…
His biographies indeed indicate
that he saw himself as a major leader.
During the Nuremberg trial he for
instance stated: ‘I am determined to
enter German history as a great man…
everything I did, I did for the Great
German Empire. Fifty or sixty years
from now, Germany will be flooded
with statues for Hermann Göring!’.
Many listeners did at that point
probably not realize that his portrait
was on display in numerous schools.
Göring’s feeling of superiority was
fed by the fact that as a teenager he
discovered that one of his forefathers,
Michael Christian Göring, had been
treasurer to the king of Prussia,
Frederic William I, between 1713 and
1740. This impressed him deeply, up to
the point of wanting to become the
treasurer to Hitler’s Germany, an
ambition he managed to fulfil later on.
The fact that he was raised at
Ritter von Epenstein’s Veldenstein
castle nourished his taste for
‘grandeur’. He grew up thinking his
family ‘owned a castle’. The truth
however was less glamorous: his
pauperized parents were allowed to
stay on the estate only because
Göring’s mother had a relationship
with von Epenstein . Von Epenstein
was extremely class conscious and he
provided young Hermann Göring with
a rich, closed and class conscious
education. As Hermann Göring’s
father was a weak drunkard, the rich
and dictatorial Ritter von Epenstein
became a much more satisfying father
figure . That changed when Göring
Articles
realised that his family totally
depended on von Epenstein. That
maybe explains why during his entire
political and military career Göring
desperately tried to climb the Nazi
social ladder.
Göring’s personal crest, his
ceremonial golden swords and
poniards, his ostentatious uniforms
and his gaudy jewellery testify to his
eternal desire of belonging to the elite.
We would like to finish with Roland
Barthes’ definition of clothing in his
book Système de la mode (1967), as it
is particularly suited to Göring and his
dress-code: ‘Fashion (French mode) is
semantically perfect, as it exclusively
focuses on the significant itself, it is an
image mankind gives itself of the
power it has of signifying the
insignificant’ .
Bibliography:
R. Barthes, The language of fashion,
New York, 2004.
M. Cooper, Uniforms of the Luftwaffe
1939-1945, London, 1974.
Y. Delandres, Le costume, image de
l’homme, Paris, 1976.
M.-A. Descamps, Psychologie de la
mode, Paris, 1979.
B. L. Davis, Uniforms and insignia of
the Luftwaffe, vol. I : 1933-1940,
London, 1995.
B. L. Davis, Uniforms and insignia of
the Luftwaffe, vol. II: 1940-1945,
London, 1995.
E. Hettler, Uniformen der Deutsche
Wehrmacht: Heer, Kriegsmarine,
Luftwaffe, Berlin, 1968.
S. Hyatt, Uniforms and insignia of the
Third Reich, U.S.A., s.d.
R. Manvell, H. Fraenkel, Göring,
kopstukken uit de Tweede
Wereldoorlog, Antwerp, 1977.
L. Mosley, The Reichmarshall, a
biography of Hermann Goering,
London, 1974.
J.G.P.M. Schrijnenmakers, J.C.G.
Schulte, Textielwarenkennis,
Groningen, 1985.
H. Toorenvliet, Uniformen, spiegels
van hun tijd, Amsterdam, 2001.
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/se
arch-handle-
url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&searchtype=ss&index=books-de&fieldauthor=Walter%20Transfeldt
W. Transfeldt,
arch-handleurl?%5Fencoding=UTF8&searchtype=ss&index=books-de&fieldauthor=KarlHermann%20von%20Brand
K.-H. von Brand,
arch-handleurl?%5Fencoding=UTF8&searchtype=ss&index=books-de&fieldauthor=Otto%20Quenstedt
O. Quenstedt, Wort um Brauch im
Deutschen Heer, 1967.
E. Lefevre, B. Malvaux, « Les
Schirmmutzen de la Luftwaffe, 193545 », in : Militaria, n° 149-151, Paris,
pp. 27-35, pp. 24-31, pp. 37-44.
See E. Lefevre and B. Manvaux, ‘Les
Schirmmützen de la Luftwaffe, 19351945’ in: Militaria, nr. 151, pp. 37: The
1935 uniform regulations stipulated
that the white cap fabric had to contain
cotton and that the fabric had to
present a certain structure. The rules
dated May 25, 1937 refer to
honeycomb (for all ranks). The
pictures on page 37 of the article show
what is meant by ‘honeycomb’.
B.L. Davis, Uniforms and insignia of
the Luftwaffe, vol. I: 1933-1940,
London, 1995, pp. 109-110 and Ibidem,
vol. II, p. 209: Rules did not only exist
for the white cap (February 26, 1935).
The way in which it was to be worn
were stipulated by the LuftwaffenVerordnungsblatt, nr. 27, August 1935,
p. 219. Wearing the cap askew was not
tolerated, although this was very
popular.
See also E. Lefevre and B. Malvaux,
‘Les Schirmmützen de la Luftwaffe,
1935-1945’ in: Militaria, nr. 149, Paris,
pp. 37-40: The 1935 uniform regulation
lists a white summer peaked cap for
all ranks.
B.L. Davis, vol. I, p. 112: The unit
colour is a fixed shade identifying
individuals or services within a given
force. The DLV (Deutsche
LufstsportVerband) used a basic
colour identification system for the
four branches within its department
and in 1935 the air force perpetuated
the tradition.
Luftwaffe Waffenfarbe Regulations,
1935-1939/40; order nr. 423, July 23,
1935. Many new colours are quickly
introduced as numerous new formations
and functions saw the light of day.
S. Hyatt, Uniforms and insignia of the
third reich, USA, s.d., p. 47.
B.L. Davis, vol. II, p. 204: The
Deutsche LuftsportsVerband (German
sporting aviation) had already
introduced this type of peaked cap
during the interwar period. The
Luftwaffe had made some adaptations
as to shape and insignia.
B.L. Davis, Uniforms and insignia of
the Luftwaffe, vol. I : 1933-1940,
London, 1995, p. 11: (Fig. 1 and 2 to be
compared). LuftwaffenVerordnungsblatt nr. 15. Part A, 4 April
1938, p. 66, Order Nr. 86, published on
April 1, 1938: This rule stated that the
Luftwaffe emblem must not be given,
sold or bought by people not belonging
to the air force. It was absolutely
forbidden to trade insignias outside
the air force. The manufacturers
producing or selling military
equipment received orders to supply
insignias only to the persons
authorized. That is also why military ID
cards had been issued, which were to
be presented in cases such as these.
Almost all German air force head-gear
displayed the air force emblem and
the Reich colours.
arch-handleurl?%5Fencoding=UTF8&searchtype=ss&index=books-de&fieldauthor=Walter%20Transfeldt
W.Transfeldt,
arch-handle
url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&searchtype=ss&index=books-de&fieldauthor=KarlHermann%20von%20Brand
K.-H. von Brand,
Articles
Deutschen Heer, 1967, pp. 50-51.
See H. Toorenvliet, Uniformen,
spiegels van hun tijd, Amsterdam,
2001, p. 30 and 75.
M.-A. Deschamps, Psychologie de la
mode, Paris, 1979, p. 54. One’s place
on the social scale is determined by
numerous factors and nuances. Our
choice of clothing provided information
about class in society, financial
means, age, etc.
Y. Deslandres, Le costume, image de
l’homme, Paris were to be presented
in cases such as these. Almost all
German air force head-gear displayed
the air force emblem and the Reich
colours.
arch-handleurl?%5Fencoding=UTF8&searchtype=ss&index=books-de&fieldauthor=Walter%20Transfeldt
W. Transfeldt,
arch-handleurl?%5Fencoding=UTF8&searchtype=ss&index=books-de&fieldauthor=KarlHermann%20von%20Brand
K.-H. von Brand,
Deutschen Heer, 1967, pp. 50-51.
See H. Toorenvliet, Uniformen,
spiegels van hun tijd, Amsterdam,
2001, p. 30 and 75.
M.-A. Deschamps, Psychologie de la
mode, Paris, 1979, p. 54. One’s place
on the social scale is determined by
numerous factors and nuances. Our
choice of clothing provided information
about, 1976, p. 78.
Idem.
Y. Deslandres, Le costume, image de
l’homme, Paris, 1976, p. 97.
R. Manvell, H. Fraenkel, Göring,
kopstukken uit de Tweede
Wereldoorlog, Antwerp, 1977, pp. 1112: his mother was Ritter von
Epenstein’s mistress. The Göring
family depended on Jewish land-owner
Ritter von Epenstein. A silent
agreement existed between the three
protagonists: Franziska Göring was von
Epenstein’s discreet mistress, with her
husband a tolerant bystander.
Idem, p. 13: It is quite revolting that his
benefactor’s name appeared on the list
of titled families in the Semi-Gotha (the
‘Who’s who’ of titled German Jews).
R. Barthes in Y. Deslandres, Le
costume, image de l’homme, Parijs,
1976, p. 58.
A 19th century
recipe for the
prevention of rust
black to prevent or cover up rust, and
for russeting armor4. In one instance
ffoulkes cites a 1671 patent ‘for a
certain oyle to keep armour and armes
from rust and kanker5.’
None of these instances, however,
give much more information on the
materials or techniques involved.
Therefore, it is worthwhile to note the
existence of a detailed, albeit brief
early nineteenth century recipe to this
effect, which is included in an herbal
manuscript in the collection of the
Mortimer Rare Book Room, part of the
library of Smith College in
Northampton, Massachusetts. Martin
Antonetti, Curator of Rare Books,
describes the herbal as a manuscript
of recipes with specimens of dried
herbs attached to many of the pages
with pins or paper straps. Into this
book were laid in about 100 sheets
containing a wide variety of recipes
written in different hands at various
times, but mostly dating from the
nineteenth century6. The recipe, with
modernized spelling and punctuation,
is as follows:
To keep arms or any polished metal
from rust
One ounce of camphor, two pounds of
hogs lard. Dissolve them together and
take off the scum. Mix as much black
lead as will bring them to any iron
colour. Rub your arms etc. over with
this and let it lie on 24 hours. Then
clean them with a linen cloth and they
will keep clean many months.
The mundane and homey nature of
maintaining one's weapons is
suggested by the fact that the page
continues, in the same hand, with a
recipe ‘To Pickle Small Onions.’
Donald J. La Rocca
Metropolitan Museum of Art
T
he problem of keeping armor and
weapons from rusting must be as
old as the use of iron itself. As an
example from the High Middle Ages,
the rusty state of mail armor and the
stains it could leave on the clothes,
hair, and skin of its wearers, is
commented on repeatedly by Wolfram
von Eschenbach in his early thirteenth
century epic, Willehalm1 Charles
ffoulkes devotes a short chapter to the
subject of historical techniques for
cleaning and maintaining armor in The
Armourer and His Craft 2. He cites
references from the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries for
cleaning armor, usually by tumbling it
in a barrel with a mixture of sand and
vinegar3. Other references from the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
cite payments for cleaning and
refurbishing armor, for painting it
1. Wolfram von Eschenbach, Willehalm,
Penguin Classics edition, London and
New York, 1984, Marion E. Gibbs and
Sindney M. Johnson, translators. See
for example pp. 69, 74, 79, 120, and 128.
2. The Armourer and His Craft from the
XIth to the XVIth Century, London, 1912,
pp. 78-82.
3. ffoulkes, p. 79.
4. ffoulkes, pp. 80-81.
5. ffoulkes, p. 81.
6. Herbal with Recipes &c. 1826. Ms. 275,
leaf 1, Mortimer Rare Book Room,
Smith College. The preceding
description of the manuscript is taken
from an e-mail of February 26, 2010. I
am very grateful to Mr. Antonetti for his
generous assistance.

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Transcription

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