Mail Shirt - East Europe / Prob. 2nd half XV cent.

[RogerFox]

Here we are, talking about what i'm more comfortable

Little by little i will post some pieces from my personal collection, hoping they can be interesting to anyone who love mail armors and such topics.

This one is the first friend that basically started my own collection, some years ago.

As mail maker and lover, i always try to find out references that can helps to better understand and map as many mail pieces scattered all over the world, inside museum, personal collection, etc.

Dating and geographically point out precisely a mail piece is not a simple task. In some rare case we have maker marks that can help us better define the provenace, but most of the time we must look for visual and objective relationships with the various known pieces. Even the historical dating is not at all so obvious and easy. Whether it is European or Eastern mails.

The general design of the piece, the tailoring, the specific shape of the rings, the riveting method, the construction pattern, the presence or absence of posthumous alterations, and so on.

As if all this wasn't enough, we know for a fact that many mails underwent modifications, cuts and reassemblies during the 19th century, when many collections and museums began to be set up and opened to the public, using many of these pieces as aesthetic fillers for plates armors.

I do personally clean and restore my own pieces, with no chemicals and mechanical tools, just patience and handwork... so i can perfectly decide the level of intervention. Said that i will proceed presenting my first contribution to this forum.

Please feel free to comment, add info and ask anything you like... we are here to share and gain knowledge