Armour (Class II) — 16th century — 1520s
About this product
About this collection
This collection covers 47 armour objects from the 1520s, delivered across 317 images in 41 ZIP assets. The 1520s saw the Battle of Pavia (1525) demonstrate the vulnerability of even the finest plate armour to firearms — yet this knowledge drove the armourer's craft to new heights of ingenuity in response. The collection spans field armours, tournament pieces, and the composite garnitures that allowed one suit to be reconfigured for multiple uses.
Why it matters
The 1520s is a pivotal decade in armour history — the Italian Wars demonstrated both the continuing value of plate protection and the new threats it faced from firearms. The response of the greatest armourers was to increase protection at the cost of mobility, producing some of the heaviest and most elaborately worked armours of the entire medieval and Renaissance tradition.
Use cases & time to value
- Historical production design: Accurate armour reference for period-specific film, game, and theatrical productions
- Arms and armour scholarship: Comparative morphological and technical study of plate armour development
- AI training for historical objects: Labelled armour dataset for object-recognition and period-classification models
- Museum interpretation and education: High-quality imagery for galleries, textbooks, and public programmes
- Auction and provenance research: Museum-quality documentation supporting valuation and attribution
Data schema
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| object_number | string | Royal Armouries catalogue number (II. prefix + sequence) |
| object_name | string | Standardised object type name as catalogued |
| class | string | II (Armour — Body Armour) |
| period | string | 16th century — 1520s |
| image_filename | string | Original filename as catalogued by the museum |
| image_format | string | tif (archival high-res), jpg (catalogue), or bmp (legacy) |
| width_px | integer | Image width in pixels |
| height_px | integer | Image height in pixels |
| file_size_bytes | integer | Uncompressed file size in bytes |
Collection stats
41 assets · 47 objects · 317 images · 16th century — 1520s
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