Hauberk (1400s): Art, History and Details

Hauberk (1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A hauberk is a mail shirt commonly extending to mid-thigh. Mail, a type of armor made from interlocking iron or steel rings, was effective at protecting the wearer from the sharp cuts of a sword, and yet was less useful against crushing impacts from blunt weapons. A hauberk would have been worn over an aketon, a padded protective garment.

Object facts

• Title: Hauberk
• Date: 1400s
• Culture: European, 15th century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: riveted steel rings
• Dimensions: Overall: 121.3 x 85.7 cm (47 3/4 x 33 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1543

A detail from the museum

Although this hauberk weighs about 21 pounds, the even distribution of the weight makes it easy to wear.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.
• "Hauberk." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11, no. 3 (March 1924): 51-70
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.