16th century
Shirt of mail. 16th century, likely German. Long sleeves. Rings of flattened form. Slight swells at the rivets. Wedge rivets. A band of smaller rings around the neck. Open at the front. Overall formed of alternating rows of solid and riveted rings. A band at the front on each side formed of all riveted rings. Rings in the body app. 5/16 in. i.d., often forming slight ovals instead of perfect circles. The smaller rings at the neck app. 3/16 in. i.d. The "collar" formed of 11 rows of small links and one row of normal sized rings at the border. App. half of the sleeves formed of somewhat heavier all riveted rings with cruder rivets. Careful inspection shows that this sleeve extension has been added with butted rings and is closed by a row of butted rings so this was almost certainly added after the working life of the shirt. Significant losses. Round brass collection tag with "707".
If you have any questions, please send them to Wade Allen
This site last updated Fri Feb 13 08:22:04 EST 2009