Had an email from Dr Nicolas P. Baptiste of the University of Savoy, south-east France, enquiring whether I had any other information on Annie’s Joan of Arc – no, unfortunately, it has remained untraced since being offered for auction in 2007 and everything I know is on the web page – but he identifies the armour in the image as a “breastplate from Istanbul, from the old Collection of the late Baron Zouche, Robert Curzon [1810-1873], who used to be a diplomat and could have brought the armour from Turkey.” A remarkable piece of observation. There are minor differences, but it is a very close match.

With homes in London and Rome, as well as having well-connected friends, I can imagine Annie would have easy access to people’s private armour collections should she wish to study a piece, although I can identify no specific link between Annie and the Baron.

Drs Nicholas and Soline Baptiste have a web presence – Les Geekstoriens, about historical armour in pop culture, although my French is too poor to understand the content well. Browsing the rather fine landscape photographs of Soline Baptiste happened to come across this image …

… of the mountains near Chamousset, Rhone-Alpes, France. It immediately reminded me of the range in The Soul’s Awakening/Where Shattered Mountains Lie.

The resemblance is admittedly tenuous, but thought it was worth a mention.

Thank you, Nicolas and Soline.

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