Bonhams London

[The Blacksmith]

I remember a trooper falling from his horse a few years back, and the papers commented that he was saved from injury by his breast and backplate! The MOD have sold many of the original cuirass' now, and many of those in use are made of plastic. A modern technological improvement.........

[Bugyotsuji]

PS Just spotted the photos of your child's armour which did not appear at first on my mobile phone. Wonderful work! Is that your workshop? Seriously impressive. 

[The Blacksmith]

Thanks Piers.  Yes that was taken in my workshop. Actually, two different workshops, but both mine. Childrens armour is great fun to make, as the proportions are all wrong until they are about nine or ten years old.

 

I was actually thinking about armour yesterday. I mentioned Henry VIII's armour, and two of his armours had a device that held the great weight of his armour from the waist, not a dead weight on the shoulders. But thinking about it, Myochin Hisaiye did a similar thing with the Yukinoshita do, the renjaku chords also helped to keep some of the direct weight off the shoulders. Simiilar thinking, fifty years apart, and halfway round the world! I did have the front plate to a Yukinoshita do, and it was extremely heavy, easily bullet proof.

[Bugyotsuji]

Yes, I appreciate that, having worn Japanese armour regularly for over twenty years. In the beginning I had terrible neck and shoulder ache, until I learned that tight binding at the waist lifts the cuirass up off your shoulders.

 

Yuki-no-shita (nowadays more experts seem to insist on saying 'Yukishita') do can be extremely heavy! We used to entertain the public by dressing them up in sets of armour. We had a room for photography, with about fifteen helpers, and seven sets of armour. Two were schildren's sets. One adult set was a Yukishita-dou. Tough days for our crew, with up to 300 family members a day wanting to dress up. 

 

There is a set for Henry VIII as a child in the Leeds Royal Armoury, and I remember thnking that children age and grow so fast it must have been difficult to judge the right size in advance so that when it is ready the child fits perfectly, and then the following year it doesn't any more...

[The Blacksmith]

There are several wonderful childrens armours in Leed, though none unfortunately belonged to Henry VIII Piers, though there is one for King Charles II as a boy. However, there are two delightful little German half armours, that quite possibly (I think!), were made for the same boy, one when he was about eight and the other when he was about ten. I think this was for the reason that you stated, that at that age they grow so fast, so the smaller one wouldn't have fitted for very long. The proportions are also quite different. There is also two quite matching armours, possibly for father and son.

 

What sort of age would a Samurai boy have been given armour? I have seen some of the toy armours , made for the boys festival, but do not recall seeing boys armour, which must be absolutely delightful.

[Shugyosha]

Some lovely metalwork there Russ.

 

I've worn a coat of mail and the sort of helm you posted on the previous page (no visor, slit for viewing from) and it felt like I was inside a UK post box. The whole thing weighed a tonne and gave practically no peripheral vision whatsoever - it must have taken a great deal of skill and muscle to use effectively.

[The Blacksmith]

Thank you John.

 

The first of the two Great Helms , was based on the Bolzano helmet from Italy, and would date to about 1300. The second Great Helm, was based on the Black Prince helmet in Canterbury, Kent. This dates to about 1370. This helmet (the copy), was originally made for use, and was intended to fit over another helmet. The customer eventually asked me to make a slightly lighter one, which I did, and then I russeted this example. As it was originally going to be used on horseback, I made the occularium a bit wider than the original, again at the customers request.. Vision is of course restricted, especially with another helmet underneath, but as the occularium is relatively close to the eyes, one does see a bit more than one might perhaps expect.

I had made another one of these many years back for a stuntman friend of mine, and he was knocked off his horse while jousting, which was planned, but what wasn't planned was his horse kicking him in the face as he fell! He lost four teeth, but thanked me as he reckoned that it saved his life, or at least very serious injury! I'm proud of that!