Field Armor Probably of Sir John Scudamore (1541 or 1542–1623)

Daniel Tachaux|Jacob Halder

ca. 1587, restored and completed 1915 · Steel, gold, leather · Arms and Armor

Sir John Scudamore (1541 or 1542–1623) was appointed a Gentleman Pensioner by Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603) in 1571 or 1572 and knighted in 1592. This armor probably was commissioned by him in preparation for the threatened Spanish invasion of England in 1588. It was made in the royal workshops at Greenwich during the tenure of Jacob Halder (documented in England 1558–1608) as master armorer. The remains of this and the later Scudamore armor for his son James (Metropolitan Museum of Art,accession number 11.128.2) were found, badly damaged and incomplete, in 1909, in Holme Lacy, the ancestral home of the Scudamores. The armors were restored and completed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1915, by the armorer Daniel Tachaux. The parts made by Tachaux include the helmet, left pauldron (shoulder defense), gauntlets, and right sabaton (foot defense).

Artist

Daniel Tachaux|Jacob Halder

Date

ca. 1587, restored and completed 1915

Medium

Steel, gold, leather

Culture

British, Greenwich

Department

Arms and Armor

Credit line

armor: Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1911; right thigh and knee defense, and left foot defense: Fletcher Fund, 1922