An Interesting French Renaissance Carved Ivory Archers Wrist Guard
An Interesting French Renaissance Carved Ivory Archers Wrist Guard or Bracer
Engraved with the initials ‘MR’, an armorial surmounted by an owl and mask heads amongst acanthus leaves
Part of the leather strap still attached. Old smooth patina
Late 16th Century – Early 17th Century
Size: 16cm high, 8.5cm wide, 5cm deep – 6¼ ins high, 3¼ ins wide, 2 ins deep
Engraved with the initials ‘MR’, an armorial surmounted by an owl and mask heads amongst acanthus leaves
Part of the leather strap still attached. Old smooth patina
Late 16th Century – Early 17th Century
Size: 16cm high, 8.5cm wide, 5cm deep – 6¼ ins high, 3¼ ins wide, 2 ins deep
An archers bracer is a covering for the left wrist to protect it from the recoil of the bow string. Chaucer mentions one in his ‘Canterbury Tales’: ‘and on his arm he wore a gai bracer’. In medieval and renaissance Europe they were generally made of horn, leather or ivory. Nearly all of the early bracers that have survived are of ivory and some are decorated with engraving such as this example. However, one ancient leather wrist guard survives from a pharaoh’s tomb in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
An Interesting French Renaissance Carved Ivory Archers Wrist Guard
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