Now Archæol. Forms: α. 5 vaun- (faun-), 6 van-, vantplate. β. 6 Sc. wamplat, 6– vamplate, 7, 9 vamplet. [f. AF. va(u)n-, va(u)nt-, VANT- + plate PLATE sb.] A plate fixed on a spear or lance to serve as a guard for the hand, esp. in tilting.
α. c. 1350. Lybeaus Desc., 1644 (K.). Lokeþ ȝour scheldes be strong, Ȝour schaftes good and long, Ȝour saket and vaunplate.
1508. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IV. 137. Tua vant plates, tua spere hedis, tua suordis.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 78. The speres brake in the kynges hande to the vantplate all to sheuers.
1598. Florio, Calce,… a vanplate, the iron about a tilting-staffe neere the hand.
β. 1534. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VI. 190. For ij marekyn skynnis to lyne the twa wamplatis to the Kingis speris.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. vii. (1912), 387. Amphialus … let his staffe fall to Agenors vamplat.
1632. Guillim’s Heraldry, IV. xiii. 343. This vamplet … is of steele and is vsed for the safegard of the Tilters hand, and is taken off and put on to the staffe or speare at pleasure.
1660. in Archaeologia, XI. 99. Vamplets for tilting staves.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vamplate, a Gauntlet, or Iron-Glove.
c. 1828. Berry, Encycl. Her., I. Gloss.
1869. Boutell, Arms & Armour, viii. 128. At the handle the shaft passed through a small circular shield, or hand-guard (called a vamplate), which was fixed to the shaft of the lance.
1898. Visct. Dillon, in Archaeol. Jrnl., V. 309. The Hatton and Prince Henry vamplates are truncated cones.
