haute piece

English

Etymology

French haute pièce.

Noun

haute piece (plural haute pieces)

1. (rare) Synonym of passguard, neck guard (plate on shoulder-armor to protect neck)
   • 1976, Middlesex Archaeological Society, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, London:

     The elbow pieces are modest in size, well-jointed and practical in appearance. The shoulders are well protected and the haute pieces high, particularly on the left side. The sabatons are rounded […]

   • 1992, Peter Krenn, Walter J. Karcheski, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Imperial Austria: Treasures of Art, Arms & Armor from the State of Styria, Te Neues Publishing Group

     Field Armor of the “Maximilian” form (consisting of close helmet with rondel, collar, breastplate with folding lance-rest and riveted tassets, backplate, pauldrons with haute pieces, vambraces, and  […]

   • 1998, Stuart W. Pyhrr, Filippo Negroli, José-A. Godoy, Silvio Leydi, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 312:

     […] , although that garniture included additional reinforces for tournament use (haute pieces for the pauldrons and reinforces for the face and left pauldron, and a vamplate for the lance), horse armor (a chanfron and saddle of plate), ...

   • 2013, Chris Dobson, San Romano: The Art of War, Chris Dobson, →ISBN, page 110:

     And before Pedro de los Ríos fell, he struck Pedro de Silva on the left pauldron, near the haute piece and he pierced a piece of it. And the said Pedro de Silva suffered a very serious reversal of fortune.

   • 2017, Donald J. La Rocca, How to Read European Armor, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 57:

     On many pauldrons designed for heavy cavalry armor, the front edge of the main plate is equipped with an upright flange called a haute piece, which is intended to keep the point of a weapon from sliding up the pauldron toward the neck ...

   • 2021, Keith Christiansen, Carlo Falciani, Andrea Bayer, Elizabeth Cropper, Davide Gasparotto, Sefy Hendler, Antonella Fenech Kroke, Tommaso Mozzati, Elizabeth Pilliod, Julia Siemon, Linda Wolk-Simon, The Medici: Portraits and Politics 1512–1570, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 129:

     The shoulder defense, or pauldron, on his right arm has been removed, revealing the chain mail worn underneath. The pauldron on his left shoulder has an haute piece, or upright neck guard. Although it is cavalry armor, which would be ...

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see haute,‎ piece.
   • 2001, CMJ New Music Monthly, page 23:

     Over the last five years, Japanese photographer Shoichi Aoki documented these fashion mavens, who combine haute pieces with homemade accessories, and printed them in ...

   • 2004, Gary Baum, Victoria Namkung, Where to Wear: Los Angeles 2005, Where to Wear Global, →ISBN:

     Don't even think about handling the hangers in a careless way; if the haute pieces (1920s-1990s) don't already scream "Handle with care!", Rita might. The delicate designer darlings, […]

Alternative forms

• haute-piece