Armpiece or vambrace, steel armour with siver overlay decoration, three joined sections to cover lower arm and hand, with Arabic inscriptions in lobed cartouches and Qur'an quotations, possibly Ottoman Turkey, c.1600-1700.

Plate armour defence for the right arm of Turkish 'splint form'. Composed of a central steel panel, moulded to cover the back of the hand and lower arm, engraved and overlaid with silver in floral arabesques, with two octograms containing the arabic "wealth" and "might" and part of an inscription from the Quran around the top. The plate is flanked by two further thin plates attached by riveted and welded steel mail links with brass buckles

Bought from the collection of Gaston de Saint-Maurice (1831-1905) in 1884. Saint-Maurice displayed his extensive art collection at the 1878 Paris exhibition, in a gallery entitled L'Egypte des Khalifes. This was part of an official sequence of displays celebrating the history of Egypt, presented by the Egyptian state at this international event. Saint-Maurice held a position at the Khedival court, and had lived in Cairo in 1868-1878. Following the exhibition, Saint-Maurice offered his collection for sale to the South Kensington Museum (today the V&A).

969-1884