41 Strange

The one on the left looks like my ex-wife

I'm quite impressed with their sheet metal skills for the time. Carbon has been added to the metal making it lighter and stronger a recent invention. You can tell because the pieces take on a black patina with age.

Amazing - but the one on the right, at least, was not for combat. It's made from iron, silver and gold, probably by the Milanese armourer Negroli, and would have been parade armour at most: a treasure to display. Prob made for a Valois or Medici. Now in Musee de L'Armee in Paris.

Maybe the high nickel content in the silver caused it to tarnish black like that. I do know that silver turns discolored during aging

I don't know about the colouration - I'm not an enthusiast, I just got curious because I couldn't imagine such flash armour as being for battle. The internet is pretty fly for finding shit out.

I'm a metal sculptor and artist by trade