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English Tournament Armor

GR4342

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English Tournament Armor of Sir George Clifford. Luxury Tudor jousting armor. Reproduction of the real armor exhibited in Metropolitan Museum, New York.

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Ships in 3-9 months

$39,990

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English Jousting Armor

Renaissance Tudor armor of sir George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.

Original armor is exhibited in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Luxury armor decorated by Gold.

George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland

George Clifford (1558-1605) was an English peer, naval commander, courtier and tournament champion of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Tournament carreer: Clifford rose in the world as an accomplished jouster and became Queen Elizabeth's Champion. . A portrait miniature by Nicholas Hilliard circa 1590 commemorates the appointment, showing him in tilting attire with the Queen's glove pinned to his hat as a sign of her favour. She made him a Knight of the Garter in 1592 and he sat as a peer in the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. Clifford was involved in the formation of the East India Company.

Naval commander: George Clifford was commander the galleon Elizabeth Bonaventure in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585. He also participated in attacking Spanish fleet in the Caribbean.
His first success was an expedition to the Azores in 1589 taking a number of Portuguese and Spanish prizes. He helped to prepare an expedition with Walter Raleigh which led to the Battle of Flores in 1592 and the capture of richly laden carrack Madre de Deus off Flores in the Azores. He commissioned the building of his own ship, the 38-gun Scourge of Malice. During the Battle of San Juan in 1598 he achieved fame for having briefly captured Fort San Felipe del Morro, the citadel protecting San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Original Suit of Armor
George Clifford's tournament armour survives and is considered the finest surviving garniture of the Tudor period. As Queen's Champion Clifford's armour would have been unrivaled in beauty. It was made at the Greenwich armory established by King Henry VIII, and a drawing of it is included in the Jacob Album, a book of designs for 29 different armors for various Elizabethan gentlemen. Clifford's armour, being part of a garniture, includes many pieces of exchange, including a grandguard, an extra helmet, a shaffron and several lance guards. These extra pieces allowed the wearer to modify his armour for different forms of tournament combat. The armour is of blued steel and is etched and inlaid with elaborate gilded designs, incorporating columns of alternating fleurs-de-lis and Tudor roses, with the letter E for Queen Elizabeth I. It is currently located in the Armor Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The original armor was made in Royal Workshop in Greenwich in late XVI century.

Jousting armor features

Weight: 30kg...66lbs.
Height: 175 cms...69".
Stand.

Etched and gilded.

Tudor rose motif: Tudor rose is combination of the red Lancasterian and the white York rose. The combined Tudor rose means victory of Tudors and end of Wars of the Roses (series of civil wars in England).

Fully hand made artowork.
Using the original materials and techniques.
Blued steel, etched and gilded as the original piece.
The interior is padded velvet and leather.

Production time: 3-9 months.

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