Schindler O. (2016). Kol’chato-plastinchatye dospehi iz kollekcii Sheremeteva [Plated Chain Mails from Count Sheremetev’s Collection]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 3, pp. 102 — 112.

Schindler O.

Abstract: Plated chain mail is an armour made of metal plates connected with separate rings and ring chains. This type of armour often fitted with mail sleeves and laps was widespread in Rus in the 16th-17th centuris. The specificity of its construction permitted more or less effective combination of the mail flexibility and the hardness of coat-of-plates. Today about two hundred samples of the armour type of both Russian and foreign (oriental) origin are reposited in the Russian arms and armour storages. The paper is devoted to five plated chain mails from the private collection of count Sheremetev. These pieces are a perfect example of the armour used in the times of Moscow Rus. Today they are not at display and kept out of the specialists’ eye and, consequently, the author’s main goal is to get them back to the sphere of research. The article provides the detailed description of their construction  – up to the chest, back, sides, etc. – and specifications such as a number of plate lines, the quantity of plates and their size. Taking into consideration the technological proсess of these pieces manufacturing, the author makes an attempt to put them in the historical context, and on the base of the E. von Lenz’s and A. Viskovatov’s classification of this type armour he proposes his own classification at the heart of which there are three variants of the armour design – a shirt armour dressed up over the head; a coat armour with a front central vertical cut; and a vest armour fastened on the shoulders and a left side.

Keywords: bakhterets, jushman,  plated chain mail, Sheremetev, Lenz.