In AD&D (1e or 2e) would Bracers of Defense stack with a shield?
The relevant text from the AD&D DMG (p. 139) is:
Their magic bestows an effective armor class equal to actually wearing armor and employing a shield. Of course, if armor is actually worn, the bracers will not be effective, but they do work in conjunction with other magical items of protection.
The wording in AD&D 2e is very slightly different (DMG p. 162):
Their magic bestows an effective armor class equal to actually wearing armor and employing a shield. If armor is actually worn, the bracers have no additional effect, but they do work in conjunction with other magical items of protection.
For what it's worth, I don't remember any player actually doing this back in the day. Magic-users couldn't use shields (and had no way to acquire what later editions would call shield proficiency), and a multi-classed Fighter/Magic-user (for example) would usually just wear armor and leave the Bracers of Defense for the single-classed Magic-user.
I'm mostly curious because of the way this is explicitly addressed in the later editions, such as 3e where they explicitly stack (the 3e equivalent Bracers of Armor gives an armor bonus, which doesn't stack with actual armor but does stack with anything that grants a shield bonus), or 5e where they explicitly don't stack (per the item's description).