A complete suit of well-matched period armour is rare indeed, so there was no doubting the star of Bonhams’ (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale in London on November 30.
This was a well-provenanced composite German suit in the fluted style generally known as Maximillian, largely dating to c.1520.
Very little armour of this age comes to us totally intact. Here it was noted that the arms were not a pair and that the tassets were later or associated, but with a provenance that might have begun at the Radziwill Armoury at Schloss Nieswicz and included the Hurst Collection and the Royal Armouries, it sold in London for £60,000.