Strange Shield for Discussion

[Gavin Nugent]

Originally Posted by RobT

Hi All,

I have a real problem with the way the leather straps work with the design on the face of the shield. They don't. They are just punched through the design haphazardly. You would think that all design and practical elements would be made to work harmoniously together as they do on your examples.

Sincerely,
RobT

To be fair, none of the region do really work in harmony in that they are punched through and do cover aspects of tooling and paint inside and out on the types, but, it can be seen externally they have been painted to match the external on these examples.

Another aspect I noted in the last day, the "X" motifs seen on this one, http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22648
They are very common on Somali shields, painted within the inner motifs of the Somali Gaashaan.