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

[Raf]

In an earlier post (chain mail) I illustrated some fragments of mercury gilded brass mail recovered from the river Thames. Do you have any observations on this ?

[RogerFox]

Originally Posted by Raf

In an earlier post (chain mail) I illustrated some fragments of mercury gilded brass mail recovered from the river Thames. Do you have any observations on this ?

Ok i saw the post, well... i'm not quite sure why you refear to those rings as "mercury gilged"?... I'm really far to be an expert but they does just look brass rings to me

From what i can see they looks round riveted and yes, very thin wire size and pretty big diameter... so they can easily part of the edge of some mail garments.

[Raf]

Originally Posted by RogerFox

Ok i saw the post, well... i'm not quite sure why you refear to those rings as "mercury gilged"?... I'm really far to be an expert but they does just look brass rings to me

From what i can see they looks round riveted and yes, very thin wire size and pretty big diameter... so they can easily part of the edge of some mail garments.

Yes the wire is very thin but 7mm diameter isn't exactly large. They are wedge rivited and it seems incredible that this was done with such fine wire . And yes they are gilded. Perhaps one should not be surprised since brass medieval / Tudor dress pins are often gilded. The use of decorative borders implies to me that mail had an aesthetic as well as functional value and this reflected its high cost.

[RogerFox]

Originally Posted by Raf

Yes the wire is very thin but 7mm diameter isn't exactly large. They are wedge rivited and it seems incredible that this was done with such fine wire . And yes they are gilded. Perhaps one should not be surprised since brass medieval / Tudor dress pins are often gilded. The use of decorative borders implies to me that mail had an aesthetic as well as functional value and this reflected its high cost.

Ok 7mm is the average diameter, but for such thin wire size if often used just for edge parts (not collar). From the picture you posted they looks round riveted. I can clearly see the head of the rivets and they do not looks wedge at all (maybe a clear front/back picture can show it better). The gilded thing is quite interesting... i'd like to see it better for understanding how it looks.