Armoured culottes, consisting of two pieces of grey canvas with small oblong pieces of iron quilted in lines between them. [MOBB [OPS move] 30/8/2017]

Collection type: Object
Description: Armoured culottes, consisting of two pieces of grey canvas with small oblong pieces of iron quilted in lines between them. [MOBB [OPS move] 30/8/2017]
Long description: Armoured trousers, each leg of two pieces of grey canvas with small oblong pieces of iron quilted in lines between them. The trousers are similar to a pair of chaps; consisting of two legs, joined at the front waist and without a seat. The legs start at the waist and finish at the knees. The metal pieces are sewn into the front of the legs. The trousers are completely hand sewn. The waistline has a folded piece of cloth for a draw string. [MJD 04/09/2014]
Geographical reference: Italy
Europe > Southern Europe > Italy
Cultural groups: Italian
Person: Maker Unknown Maker; Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Date / Period: Date made: 1500-1600?, uncertain
Date collected: ?By 1874
Acquisition information: Donated: 1884
Materials and processes: Material Canvas Textile, Material Iron Metal, Material Yarn, Process Quilted, Process Woven, Process Stitched
Dimensions: Length: max 630 mm, Width: max 975 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1884.31.42 PR Cat other PR nos: 110
Research and responses: Ninya Mikhaila examined these on 25 September during a research visit in preparation for a publication on 16th century textile armour and noted they are currently turned inside out. [ZM 25/09/2014]
This object was looked at by Melanie Braun and Claire Trapnell (School of Historical Dress, London). The visit took place August 11 2015. Melanie Braun observed that the trousers are not turned inside out, and that you would wear the rough-side of the reverse stitch on the outside. [NC 12/08/2015]
Associated publications: C ffoulkes. 1912. 'European Arms and Armour in the University of Oxford' Clarendon Press, Oxford. p63 '196 Culottes or drawers of quilted linen with small iron plates like those of a brigandine inserted between the covers. These are probably of the late fifteenth or sixteenth century. There is no mention of this piece in Meyrick and Skelton's work before referred to. They would have been covered by silk velvet Pitt Rivers (Meyrick collection)' [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998] Ffoulkes, C (1912) The Armourer and His Craft: From the XIth to the XVIth Century, Dover (1988 Facsimile): New York. Page 84 'In the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, are a pair of culottes or drawers lined with thin busks of steel, and also two sets of rose-pink silk doublets, breast, back and fald padded with cotton, both presumably of the late sixteenth-century; the are noticed in Arms and Armour at Oxford, by the present writer, but no definite history is known of either of the specimens.'. [MJD 15/07/2014]

Search terms: Armour Weapon, Clothing, Armour, Trousers