Introduction

As with the mail which preceded it and continued alongside it, most medieval plate armour is hard to recognize. However, convex copper-alloy knuckle plates from gauntlets are identifiable from their arched profile. They also tend to feature a central protrusion at their tops and would have protected the main finger joint, being riveted to the leather or fabric glove (Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2969).

PAS object type to be used

Use GAUNTLET

Terms to use in the description

Such knuckle plates tend feature at protrusion at their tops which may be pointed oval in shape, and hollow backed (Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2970; fig. 1533, nos 12932, 12933), or a hollow pyramid.  Decoration is generally restricted to basic linear engraving.

Date

Plate armour developed over the early decades of the 14th century (Blair in Alexander and Binski (eds) 1987, 169). Gauntlets with such knuckle plates are thought mainly to have been used between c. 1350 and c. 1440, after which time they superseded by ‘mitten gauntlets’ (Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2970). Within this date range sit the gauntlets shown on the effigy of Edward the Black Prince (d. 1376).

Examples

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Key references

Ottaway and Rogers 2002

Griffiths in Biddle 1990