Suit of armour with wootz breast plates
Full Description:
A complete suit of Indian armour consisting of a mail and plate helmet, shirt and mail trousers and holding a long all-steel lance of the same period and place. It is unusual to find a complete set, as Indian armouries nearly always stored shirts, helmets and trousers independently, meaning most were separated when the armouries deaccessioned. It is likely to be down to the distinctive decoration on the shirt and helmet that this set has managed to remain together. Both the helmet and shirt plates have cusped brass borders applied, which provide both strength and decoration. A shirt with similar adornment is published by Ricketts and Missillier.1
The helmet is formed of nine slightly convex triangular steel plates and is surmounted by a steel disc fitted with a plume holder. Mounted on the front plate is a sliding nasal guard terminating top and bottom with tear drop shaped finials, a small hook is present to secure the guard in the up position when not in use. The attached aventail is made of heavy, small, fine rings, providing excellent and necessary protection to the face, neck and shoulders. A small V flap at the face provides the wearer with an option to lift it to increase their visibility.
The shirt is also made of fine but heavy rings. The chest has two large plates of wootz or watered steel, a highly unusual feature, fitted with four pairs of flower shaped buckles, two of which are secured with an old fabric belt. The flower shaped buckle is a detail that makes this easy to identify as an Indian mail shirt of higher quality (also present in the Ricketts and Missilier example cited above). Fish shaped buckles were also used on similarly superior shirts. One of which, sold by us, is now in the David collection, Copenhagen.2 The sides of the shirt are fitted with two plates under each arm to protect the kidney area and also decorated with brass borders. The back consists of three rows of overlapping steel lamellae tapering in towards the waist, the centre row with decorative cusped arches. A pair of mail trousers completes the ensemble, to make the wearer of this suit practically impenetrable.
One of the plates on the inside has an inscription engraved in Devangari. It records the capture of the shirt by Anup Singh of Bikaner who was acting as a general for the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
Provenance
By repute - Eric Vaule, New York.
References
1Ricketts & Missillier, Splendeur des Armes Orientales, 1988, pp.84, cat.no.139.
2Folsach/Meyer/Wandel, ‘Fighting, Hunting, Impressing – Arms and Armour from the Islamic World 1500-1850’, 2021, pp.160-161, cat.no.55.