A Ni Mai Tachi Do Tosei Gusoku [Two Piece Standing Cuirass Armour]

HELMET EDO PERIOD (LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY), REST EDO PERIOD (LATE 18TH CENTURY)

Details

A Ni Mai Tachi Do Tosei Gusoku [Two Piece Standing Cuirass Armour]
Helmet Edo Period (Late 16th/early 17th Century), Rest Edo Period (Late 18th Century)
The sixty plate koseizan suji bachi [a high sided ridged bowl] helmet heavily black lacquered with a six stage mixed metal tehen kanamono, a tosei mabisashi with embossed eyebrows covered with printed leather and edged with a shakudo fukurin, five lame ko manju jikoro of kiritsuke kozane with leather covered fukigayeshi, shakudo fukurin and a gilt copper mon, russet lacquered iron Nara-style mask with a hair moustache and gilt teeth, yodarekake of kiritsuke kozane; the fine ni mai tachi do of hon kozane with matching detachable kusazuri finely mounted with deeply engraved shakudo fukurin, one missing, copper gilt saihai and tenugui ni kwan, each with a mon on the front and a fine shakudo agemaki no kwan with a mon supporting the agemaki on the back, tateire [standing collar] and ko hire [small flaps protecting the point of the shoulder] of black "Dutch cloth", chu sode of hon kozane, shakudo fukurin, the rest of the kanamono of peony headed rivets backed by pierced leaves over gilded copper plates, russet iron shino gote, the hyotan gane [gourd plate] on the upper arm of each opening on a gilt copper leaf hinge to reveal a small round container, black lacquered kawara haidate in leather and black lacquered iron shino suneate, the whole armour laced in a deep purple odoshi and mounted on a fine green brocade, with an armour box

Lot Essay

It is not unusual to find an item of earlier manufacture mounted with an armour. However, this armour is exceptional in that nearly all the components have been brought together from different sources and mounted together in a lavish manner to make this striking armour.

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