1571

Upper-Body Defense (Waistcoat Cuirass with Pauldrons

Artist/maker unknown

This cuirass is a rare, high-quality survival from what was once a robust industry in armor production in Cologne, Germany. Metal studs running down the front evoke buttons, and the overall silhouette channels contemporaneous waistcoat fashions in fabric versions for civilians.

Much of what we know about the armor comes directly from the object itself, as an etched inscription along the neck offers a brief biography that translates as "In the year ’71 this armor was made in Cologne for the skipper Kunz van Unckel to be used in battle and strife as God may will, in the year 1571." The armor’s patron, Kunz van Unckel, was no elite nobleman or prince but a member of the working upper-middle class. Records specify that Unckel was a shipman who transported goods into Cologne’s busy port.