Allen Antiques

Piece of Mail ????

Small piece of Mail. Each ring stamped with parallel lines. Rectangular rivets of copper alloy.

Additional analysis by Mart Shearer:

It is certainly a piece of Islamic (possibly Northern Syrian or Persian) mail. Three factors point to this origin, all of which are shared by an example in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (14.99.28) which is described as probably early 16th c. Syrian or Turkish..

• The overlap of the riveted join extends inward in a point. This may keep the ring from hanging at the stress point of the rivet. It seems to be a feature of north Islamic, and sometimes Caucasian mail.
• The coined concentric rings are noted by the Met to be, ""a feature found on mail shirts with both Mamluk and Iranian associations.
• ""The yellow rivets in iron were popular in Europe in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, where they are noted as ""saffroned hauberks"".

Hervis of Metz, Roman de Garin, ll.9404-9405:

Et puis vestit .I. blanc hauberc safrei, D'argant la maille, li clavains fut dorez", And then dressed in 1 saffroned white hauberk The mail of silver, the nails were of gold,"

However, copper-alloy rivets remained in use far longer in Indo-Persian mail. Further, the use of rectangular rivets (David Edge has referred to these as ""slotted"" rivets) seems to be a feature peculiar to Mamluk mail. Compare MET 14.99.28 illustrated in the second image.

If you have any questions, please send them to Wade Allen

This site last updated Mon Dec 19 09:41:09 EST 2022