Exploding shields

[David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>]

Poster: David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>


> However, this would have no connection at all with the "exploding" shield
> design -- from memory, those designs have more in common with truck
> leaf-springs and car-door hinges than a glued mosaic of parts.  They
> weren't designed to be ablative (destroyed gradually), either; if hit
> correctly they were designed to shatter dramatically and completely. 
  
> There are a number of books with diagrams of the exploding shields; I
> believe that the most easy-to-find illustrations are by Du"rer.


I was close, but not perfect -- the woodcuts are not Du:rer, as it turns
out, but his contemporary, Hans Burgkmair. 

At least two different shields of this spring-loaded exploding type are
illustrated in _The_Triumph_of_Maximilian_I_, 1526, a long series of
woodcuts by Hans Burgkmair and Albrecht Altdorfer (and possibly others).

One such illustration is in "A History of British Wood Engraving" by
Albert Garrett (London: Midas Books, 1978) ISBN 0 859360776, page 57.

There are good pictures of the surviving trigger mechanism in "Arms and
Armour of the Medieval Knight" (don't have a citation with me), and in the
Osprey Elite series 17, "Knights at Tournament" Christopher Gravett, page 
29.  The Osprey also has an illustration from The Triumph of Maximilian I
on page 49 showing another type of exploding shield, different from the
one shown by Garrett in "A History of British Wood Engraving". 

Regards,

Dafydd

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