iron cuirass

[Iain]

Originally Posted by LJ

I came across this reference last year:
MacLeod, O., 1912 Chiefs and Cities of Central Africa. Across Lake Chad by way of British, French, and German territories. Pp 14 + 322. Edinburgh & London: Blackwood & sons.

A ‘Native-made iron cuirass” is illustrated on p.269, in a section describing the visit to the town of Fika (northern Nigeria) during March 1911. The armour is not described, only figured. Apparently, this piece of armour, together with a hide cuirass from Musgum collected during the same voyage, is in the Pitt Rivers museum.

The image in the first post of this thread is the Pitt Rivers example.

I'm attaching some additional views of another museum example, can't recall off the top of my head which one! But it shows the full construction nicely.

[nKante]

WOW. Those art the best pictures I have ever seen of one. Some of those long, 'nail' looking rivets are just plain scary.

[Iain]

They are a serious piece of kit and quite effective I'd imagine combined with the quilted armour. Couple this with a lance and a hefty takouba and you've got a picture quite a bit different than what most people would expect to find south of the Sahara.

[nKante]

Figured I post myself wearing it with the rest of my panoply.

[KraVseR]

nKante, what a warrior you have reconstructed?

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Iain

I'm attaching some additional views of another museum example, can't recall off the top of my head which one! But it shows the full construction nicely.

The images are from The British Museum.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/researc...bjectid=621141

[Iain]

I just realized I have an incredibly clear image of one of these cuirass being worn from 1905 I never posted. It is from northern Cameroon.

[nKante]

NICE. I love the high collar on the quilted robe. This might be my new profile picture.

[estcrh]

There is one of these cuirasses for sale at auction currently, since there is some sort of silly rule about posting pictures of items that are for sale on the forum, if anyone wants information on it send me a message.

[Iain]

I should also mention the image illustrates a cavalryman of the Moundang people. One of the groups within the Mandara region of north Cameroon.

[Iain]

Well after quite a few years I am finally in possession of one of these. I need to do a proper photo session in the coming weeks and it needs a little clean on the inside of the cuirass but I thought some might enjoy a quick picture of it enjoying its new home with an old takouba.

[estcrh]

From George Stone.

[TVV]

I just saw this one as I was browsing Waffen aus Zentral-Afrika. Not much info given, other than the Fulbe attribution. According to the description, the edge is trimmed in leather and there is cloth padding on the inside. It was collected by Steinkopf prior to 1914.

[Iain]

Originally Posted by TVV

I just saw this one as I was browsing Waffen aus Zentral-Afrika. Not much info given, other than the Fulbe attribution. According to the description, the edge is trimmed in leather and there is cloth padding on the inside. It was collected by Steinkopf prior to 1914.

Thanks Teodor, there are another two at least in Germany the Bremen museum (this might be one of them?).

Photo is courtesy of Wolf.

I am not sure where the one from Stone has ended up.

With mine, the next step is going to be a deep cleaning, some exploratory work has revealed that there is in fact extensive dark rust with red rust hiding underneath. So its going to get a good going over with metal -de-corroder and then a polish.