Armor of Sir James Scudamore (1558–1619)

Armorer:: Made under the direction of Jacob Halder (British, master armorer at the royal workshops at Greenwich, documented in England 1558–1608)

Armorer:: Breastplate, backplate, and gauntlets made by Daniel Tachaux (French, 1857–1928, active in France and America) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Armor Workshop

Date:: ca. 1595–96

Geography:: Greenwich

Culture:: British, Greenwich

Medium:: Steel, gold, leather

Dimensions:: H. 70 1/4 in. (178.5 cm); Wt. 50 lb. 7 oz. (22.88 kg)

Classification:: Armor for Man

Credit Line:: Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1911

Accession Number:: 11.128.2a–n

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 371

Sir James Scudamore (1558–1619) was a prominent Elizabethan soldier and courtier. Also an enthusiastic jouster, he was praised in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene (published 1596) as an example of chivalry personified.

This armor was part of a large garniture, which probably had exchange pieces to adapt it for cavalry, infantry, and possibly also tournament use. It was made in the royal workshops at Greenwich about 1595–96, perhaps in anticipation of Scudamore’s participation in the 1596 naval attack on Cadiz, Spain. Scudamore’s portrait, still in the possession of his descendants, shows him wearing this armor.

The remains of this and the earlier Scudamore armor in the adjacent case were found, badly damaged and incomplete, in 1909, in Holme Lacy, the ancestral home of the Scudamores. The armors were restored and completed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1915, by the armorer Daniel Tachaux. The parts made by Tachaux include the breastplate, backplate, and gauntlets.

Ex. coll.: Sir James Scudamore and Edwyn Francis Scudamore-Stanhope, 10th Earl of Chesterfield, Holme Lacey, Herefordshire, England.

London. H. M. Tower of London. "Exhibition of Armour Made in the Royal Workshops at Greenwich," May 22–September 29, 1951, no. 15.

Grancsay, Stephen V. "Notes on Armor of the Greenwich School." Metropolitan Museum Studies 2, pt. 1 (1929). p. 90.

Dean, Bashford, and Robert T. Nichol. Handbook of Arms and Armor, European and Oriental, edited by Stephen V. Grancsay. 4th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 1930. p. 142, fig. 95.

Williams, Alan, and Anthony de Reuck. The Royal Armoury at Greenwich 1515–1649: A History of Its Technology. Royal Armouries Monograph 4. Leeds: Trustees of the Royal Armouries, 1995. pp. 101–102, ill.

Timelines
Great Britain and Ireland, 1400–1600 A.D.
Great Britain and Ireland, 1600–1800 A.D.

Department

Arms and Armor (13,528)

Artist / Maker / Culture

Jacob Halder (6)

Daniel Tachaux (10)

Object Type / Material

Iron and iron alloy (12,309)

Geographic Location

United Kingdom (27,790)

Terminal Lame of a Grand Guard from the Armor Garniture of George Clifford (1558–1605), Third Earl of Cumberland

Artist: Made under the direction of Jacob Halder (British, master armorer at the royal workshops at Greenwich, documented in England 1558–1608) Date: 1586 Medium: Steel, gold Accession: 36.98.1 On view in:Not on view

Right Thigh and Knee Defense (Cuisse and Poleyn) for the Armor of Sir John Scudamore (1541 or 1542–1623)

Artist: Made under the direction of Jacob Halder (British, master armorer at the royal workshops at Greenwich, documented in England 1558–1608) Date: ca. 1587 Medium: Steel, gold, leather Accession: 22.147.4a, b On view in:Gallery 371

Armor Garniture of George Clifford (1558–1605), Third Earl of Cumberland

Artist: Made under the direction of Jacob Halder (British, master armorer at the royal workshops at Greenwich, documented in England 1558–1608) Date: 1586 Medium: Steel, gold, leather, textile Accession: 32.130.6a–y On view in:Gallery 371

Field Armor Probably of Sir John Scudamore (1541 or 1542–1623)

Artist: Made under the direction of Jacob Halder (British, master armorer at the royal workshops at Greenwich, documented in England 1558–1608) Date: ca. 1587, restored and completed 1915 Medium: Steel, gold, leather Accession: 11.128.1a–p On view in:Gallery 371

Field Armor Probably of Sir John Scudamore (1541 or 1542–1623)

Artist: Made under the direction of Jacob Halder (British, master armorer at the royal workshops at Greenwich, documented in England 1558–1608) Date: ca. 1587, restored and completed 1915 Medium: Steel, gold, leather Accession: 11.128.1a–p; 22.147.4a, b, .11 On view in:Gallery 371