Konrad Seusenhofer

Konrad Seusenhofer (1455-1518г.), Innsbruck, Austria.

Konrad Seusenhofer was a cousin of Treitz, the author of the Chronicle of the "White King," a valuable source of information on the applied arts of the time, as well as on fashionable costumes and armor. In 1504, Konrad was appointed court armorer for a six-year term, followed by a lifetime pension of 50 florins. That same year, he received funds to expand his workshop, but this was subsequently deducted from his salary. The young Emperor Maximilian I was fascinated by weapons and had his own ideas about armor making. Together with Konrad, he developed the fluted style of plate armor, which is still called Maximilian. Based on Gothic armor with its minimal, ornate fluting of the 15th century, Conrad and the emperor refined it to include full fluting on the surface. Seusenhofer preferred to craft armor with ornate ornamentation, but the Army demanded simple, practical armor. The Emperor ignored their demands, favoring opulence and glitz. The craftsman repeatedly suffered from financial shortages due to delays in payments for completed armor, so he often delayed shipments until full payment for the finished pieces. Once, Maximilian I, enraged by the failure to deliver a shipment of urgently needed armor for the army, ordered unarmored armorers to be deployed at the front during the next battle. Needless to say, the armor was immediately delivered to the army. After Konrad's death, the workshop was taken over by his brother, Hans, who continued to produce high-quality armor.