Armour (Class II) — 16th century — 1570s
About this product
About this collection
This collection covers 77 armour objects from the 1570s, delivered across 411 images in 25 ZIP assets. The 1570s is the heart of Elizabethan England — the decade of Drake's circumnavigation, the beginning of conflict in the Netherlands, and the consolidation of Protestant rule. The armour produced and acquired in this period reflects a court simultaneously confident and threatened, producing both functional military equipment and elaborate ceremonial pieces.
Why it matters
The 1570s armour collection captures a moment when the full plate harness was beginning to give way to partial armour in practical military use — the pistol-armed cavalry of the period could be protected by a three-quarter harness, and infantry increasingly relied on morion helmet and breastplate alone.
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 — 1570s |
| 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
25 assets · 77 objects · 411 images · 16th century — 1570s
Assets (0)
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