Colour me interested… :-D
Shields with a single spike in the middle are fairly common - the Scottish Highland targe often had a screw-off spike with a little scabbard on the back of the shield, so as not to inconvenience fellow-clansmen with unnecessary stabbings.
This, however, looks like one of those “If one (x) is good, then more are better” rich man’s gadgets / toys, what with the velvet lining and all. This inner view also shows the hand-grip “trigger” for opening and shutting the lantern port.
Here’s another view of the front with a better view of details: the open port, “fences” on two of the spikes as blade-catchers, holes and raised inner rim sections on the shield as point-catchers. (Secondary inner rings or rims often featured on smaller, simpler bucklers as well, for the same reason.)
IIRC this contraption appears a lot in RPG supplies lists - I first saw it in “Tunnels & Trolls” back in about 1978, on a list which was nothing short of a cherrypick from Stone’s “Glossary of Arms and Armor”. A fantasy RPG list is where it belongs.
This close-up gives a better view of the lantern, whose light source is probably a small fat candle.
As anyone who’s used a candle during a power failure will know, they go out easily when carried about. Any defensive manoeuvre that did anything but hold this shield upright was likely to put the light out (dark!) and if it was a OIL lantern it could spray oil all over the place (slippery!) or set someone, probably its user, on fire (Aaaah burny-burny!) Possibly, for full comedy value, all three at once.
Here’s a simpler version from the Higgins Collection, though IMO the lamp still comes with all the risks of going out, spillage and self-combustion already mentioned.
It’s a defensive / offensive weapon that has a light source attached, but is far less “sneaky” than the multi-spiked gadget version. There’s no trigger mechanism to dazzle an opponent with sudden glare*, just a hand-grip…
… and since the lamp was in the way at the back, the shutter had to be opened from the front. Not much of a sudden, dramatic combat move.
*That “sudden glare” from what might be just a single candle was more effective than you might think: medieval and Renaissance streets at night were dark places, and everyone’s eyes were sensitised. Try sitting in a darkened room for ten minutes then striking a match as you look straight at it. That’s what someone snapping open a lantern in your face would have been like.
Here is a lantern vs cloak combat, where they’re squaring up to each other.
However this illustration suggests that the actual technique involved working out where your opponent was in the dark, then dazzling and stabbing him in the same instant.
There were even simpler lantern shields where the lantern was simply fitted to or hung from the shield, without spikes, hidden portholes or anything else. Here’s one that’s a bit more unusual, but working on the same principal.
The hook is for a lantern, purely as illumination rather than a dazzler - there’s no way to suddenly open it if shut, and any dramatic defensive move would send it flying - while the raised concentric rings are point-catchers.
The vambrace (forearm guard) is an unusual extra, since the way it cups the wearer’s elbow prevents the usual use of bucklers at arms’ length.
This picture is from the Renaissance, but being able to hold a buckler away from the body seems standard right back to medieval illustrations in MS. I.33
That other shield doesn’t have a lantern, just a peep-hole, but seems equally impractical. Here’s a bigger view:
…and another version. The problem is obvious, and if you saw “A Christmas Story” over the holidays you’ll know the quote: “I can’t put my arm(s) down!”
Shoulder muscles will soon begin to ache, and after a few minutes resting the shield rim on one thigh, leg muscles will join in the chorus of complaint.
Finally, and though again no lanterns are involved, here are a couple of Indian weapons: the Madu shield, with a spike and two steel-tipped blackbuck horns…
…and the triple-bladed haladie dagger.
I couldn’t find a photo, but knowing what little I do about Indian weapons, I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised to find that somewhere out there is a triple-blade haladie with a spiked madu-style shield over the grip.
If it involved a couple of flintlock pistols instead, I wouldn’t raise an eyebrow…
Check out the 1973 “Three Musketeers” for one of the few cinematic sword-and-lantern fights; this one is between Michael York (D’Artagnan) and Christopher Lee (Rochefort) - not lantern shields, unfortunately, but shuttered “dark-lanterns” which is good enough - and the limitations on night photography* mean the scene wasn’t as dark as it could have been, but it gives an idea and is thoroughly entertaining.
*It’s possible photo limitations weren’t the concern, but the risk of someone accidentally running onto a darkness-hidden rapier point.
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