A Burgonet, Almain-Collar And Knee-Length Tassets Made For A Viennese Militia Unit

NUREMBERG, DATED 1546, ETCHED BY AUGUSTIN HIRSCHVOGEL, VIENNA

Details

A Burgonet, Almain-Collar And Knee-Length Tassets Made For A Viennese Militia Unit
Nuremberg, dated 1546, etched by Augustin Hirschvogel, Vienna
The first with rounded one-piece skull with medial ridge and small apical point, encircled by a row of lining-rivets and with flanged lower edge carrying a single riveted neck-plate extended by corresponding plates on the deep hinged cheek-pieces, pivoted pointed fall struck with the Nuremberg and Vienna marks, the main edges roped throughout and the skull and neck lames pierced with small point-holes; the second with a central section comprising a main plate and two neck lames at front and rear, the upper one with a bold roped turn along the top edge, hinged and pivoted on the left and with a stud and keyhole catch on the right, and extensions of two plates each over the points of the shoulder, the outer plates with sunken roped borders, on each side a hinged steel strap carrying a pillar with a spring-loaded catch for attaching the pauldrons, and struck on the front main plate with the Nuremberg mark; the last of seven plates each, the bottom ones deeper, with prominent roped turns along the lower edges below a narrow flute, and struck with the Vienna mark, the three top plates shaped for a cod-piece and with a recessed roped border at their inner end, the upper edge with suspension buckles, the skull of the burgonet and the main front plate of the collar etched with the coat-of-arms of the City of Vienna and the date 1546, on the collar accompanied by 'N 53' and a series of stamped letters
The first 10in. (26cm.) high (4)

Provenance

City Arsenal (Brgerliches Zeughaus), Vienna.

Lot Essay

These pieces are part of a group of sixty Nuremberg infantry half-armours (Knechtsrstungen), purchased in 1546 by the City of Vienna from Georg Zimmerman, and etched with the city arms and numbers by Augustin Hirschvogel, both of Vienna. The purchase was probably connected with the outbreak in the same year of the religious Schmalkaldic War between the Emperor Charles V and the protestant Schmalkaldic League. A number of the armours and parts thereof still remain in the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien.
See Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, Das Wiener Brgerliche Zeughaus. Gotik und Renaissance, Vienna, May-September 1960, pp. 27-8, 40-41; ibid., Wehrhafte Stadt. Das Wiener Brgerliche Zeughaus im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, 15 May-21 September 1986, pp. 9, 65-69; Schlo Schallaburg bei Melk, Das Wiener Brgerliche Zeughaus. Rstungen und Waffen aus Fnf Jahrhunderten, 14 May-13 October 1977, pp. 12, 95-97.

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