This left thigh, along with a matching left shoulder also in the Metropolitan Museum's collection (acc. no. 29.158.121), is from an armor ordered in 1532 by Archduke Ferdinand (later Emperor Ferdinand I) for his five-year-old nephew, the future Philip II of Spain (reigned 1556–98).
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Dimensions:H. 8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm); W. 6 in. (15.2 cm); D. 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm)
Classification:Armor Parts-Thigh and Leg Defense
Credit Line:Bashford Dean Memorial Collection, Funds from various donors, 1929
Accession Number:29.158.304
Real Armería, Madrid (by 1566–before 1845); [Sale, Deacon’s, London, July 2–3, 1845, no. 76 “A very rare specimen of slashed and engraved armour, consisting of the espalier and cuisses, for a youth, delicately chiseled in fine gold and a plain steel gauntlet,” sold for 48 gns.]; Dr. William Meyrick, Hyde Park, London (by 1853); Albert Denison, 1st Lord Londesborough, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, England (by d. 1860; by descent to his son, the 1st Earl of Londesborough); William Henry Forester Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, England (1860–88; Armour and Arms…of the Right Hon. Earl of Londesborough, Christie, Manson & Woods, July 4–6, 9–11 1888, no. 298, sold together with matching pauldron for £12); James Gurney, London (by 1893–d. 1897; his estate sale, The Choice Collection of Works of Art . . . Formed by that well-known connoisseur, the late James Gurney, Esq., Christie, Manson & Woods, London, March 8–12, 1898, no. 277); Sir Guy Francis Laking, London (by 1899); Frank Gair Macomber, Boston (until 1916; sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland (1916; by exchange to Dean); Bashford Dean, New York (1916–d. 1928; sold by his estate to MMA).
London. New Gallery. "Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550," 1893–1894, no.1174.
London. Burlington Fine Arts Club. "Exhibition of Chased and Embossed Steel and Iron Work of European Origin," 1900, nos. 12, 16.
Innsbruck. Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum. "Die Innsbrucker Plattnerkunst," June 26–September 30, 1954, no. 60.
Deacon's. [Auction Catalog, Anonymous Collection (Samuel L. Pratt ?)]. London, Jule 2–3, 1845. no. 76 ("a very rare specimen of slashed and engraved armour, consisting of the espalier and cuisses, for a youth, delicately chiseled in fine gold, and a plain steel gauntlet").
British Archaeological Association. Journal of the British Archaeological Association (1853), pp. 88–89.
New Gallery. Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550: [at] the New Gallery, Regent Street, 1893–4. London, 1893. p. 122, no. 1174.
Christie, Manson & Woods. Choice Collection of Works of Art, Mostly of the XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth Centuries. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, March 8–12, 1898. no. 277.
Burlington Fine Arts Club and John Starkie Gardner. Exhibition of Chased and Embossed Steel and Iron Work of European Origin. London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1900. p. 54, nos. 12, 16.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Stephen V. Grancsay, and Carl Otto von Kienbusch. The Bashford Dean Collection of Arms and Armor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Portland, ME: Southworth Press for the Armor and Arms Club of New York City, 1933. pp. 157–58, no. 82, pl. XLII.
Thomas, Bruno, and Ortwin Gamber. Die Innsbrucker Plattnerkunst. Innsbruck: Tyrolia Verlag, 1954. no. 60, ill.
Christie, Manson & Woods. Collection of Armour and Arms, Carvings in Ivory. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, July 4–6 and July 9–11, 1888. no. 298.
Capwell, Tobias E. "Cloth of Steel: Elements of a Landsknecht Armour in the Wallace Collection." In Arms and Armour: History, Conservation and Analysis. London: Archetype Publications, 2021. p. 53, fig. 27b.
Jörg Wagner (Austrian, Innsbruck, recorded 1485–92)
ca. 1485–95
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