Breastplate

This simple but well-made breastplate for infantry use is remarkable for the technique of its ornamentation, the main plate being recessed, or sunken, rather than embossed with a design, and for the nature of the ornament, a large star that may be a pious reference to the star of Bethlehem, or perhaps a heraldic reference to the coat of arms of a family or city. The contours of the star are emphasized by engraved lines. No breastplate with a comparable decoration is known.

The breastplate comprises a thick main plate, a moveable gusset plate at each armhole, and a fauld of four lames. Beneath the neck opening the upper plate is struck with a much abraded and now indistinct mark, which may have originally represented the letter "p" in Gothic script. The main plate is flanged outward and turned inward along the upper edge, to guard the neck. It flares outward along the lower edge to accommodate the fauld. The gusset plates are each flanged outward and turned inward along the outer edge, and secured to the main plate by rivets at the top and bottom. The left gusset is fitted at the top with an iron buckle to be secured by a leather shoulder strap to a backplate, which is now missing. The right gusset has a circular hole in the same area for a rivet, now missing, to which a comparable buckle would have been attached.

The four fauld lames are secured to one another and to the main plate down the sides by modern iron rivets with domed heads. Each lame is decorated with a series of three v-shaped notches in the center of the upper edge. The bottom lame projects forward and is slightly arched over the groin. At each side of the projecting groin is a modern iron rivet with a domed head at each side. All fauld lames have additional iron rivets down the sides, the heads of which are on the interior, and retain small remnants of articulating leather straps. The second uppermost lame has two lines, presumably assembly marks, scored on the proper right interior side; the third lame has three similar lines in the center; and the fourth lame has three similar scored lines on the proper left side.