Knights often paraded their splendid armours at weddings and other family festivities, and compared their own with those of the guests. That was how Peter von Speyer became well known. He was an armourer from southern Germany with a workshop in Annaberg. He was drawn to those parts by the silver mining boom and the wealth of the Electors of Saxony. He received commissions from the King of Denmark, the Elector of Brandenburg and August the Strong, Elector of Saxony. Peter von Speyer’s son took over the workshop from his father and continued to make armour for the royal courts; Christian I was one of his clients. Probably around 1590, he ordered three suits of armour for his sons: Christian who was seven, Johann Georg who was five, and August who was just one year old.
The difference in size between the armours for the five-year-old boy and his seven-year-old brother is very obvious. The Elector also ordered a five-year-old’s armour for little August. Evidently he wanted to treat all three boys the same and to ensure that the youngest wouldn’t have to wear a hand-me-down from one of his older brothers. All three armours are blackened. Their execution is simple, and two have remnants of gold painting in imitation of the more elaborate, etched decoration of contemporary full-size armours.
The boys‘ suits of armour came with a number of weapons: two blackened rapiers, one gilded rapier, and two brass war hammers.
