The knight's equipment

Armour, weapons and shields were made for the fourteen knights taking part in the Ekolsund tournament in 1776. More equipment was made the following year, when the number of knights was raised to 26. Most of these items are still extant.

The armour of Gustav III and Duke Karl is of mercury-gilded copper, while the other suits of armour are of painted tin plate - blue or green for the King's quadrille, black for the Duke's. Most of them have the coats of arms of their original wearers painted on the breastplate and backplate.

The tilting skirts (bases) too are decorated with the wearer's arms and the helmets are embellished with crests of wood and plaster, surrounded by wreaths, or by baronial or counts' crowns, depending on the rank of the wearer. The knights' shields are of two kinds: oval for the Kings' quadrille and contoured for the Duke's. Those made for the Ekolsund tournament were painted by the court painter Lars Bolander.

The selection of the devices and emblemes decorating the shields was preceded by painstaking study of books on heraldry and emblems. Expert advice was given on this subject by Chancery Secretary Carl Reinhold Berch. All the shields were painted over with new emblems in 1777. The lances, like the suits of armour, display the knights' coats of arms. The ring-lances have fixed points of iron while the fork-shaped points of the quintain-lances ("tingtan" points) were detachable, though none have survived.

Other weapons such as battle-axes, javelins, swords and javelots are extant in large numbers, together with banners, standards, caparisons, saddles, heralds' tabards and costumes.