Usually used on arm and leg defenses during the 14th and very early 15th century, the idea was to add longitudinal strips of reinforcing to a heavier
leather gutter that formed the
vambrace and another that formed the
rerebrace . The
couter was generally, but not always, attached with internal straps rather than
articulated with
lames . The leather vambrace and rerebrace are often depicted in surviving effigies and
brasses as being tooled; the strips might have been formed from
iron , brass, bronze, or
latten , though iron was probably the most common. Especially popular in Germany and in Italy during the whole of the
transitional period . (See Blair p. 64)
