Left Cuisse, from a Garniture, probably made for Ludwig Ungnad von Weissenwolf auf Sunegg

Artist Desiderius Helmschmid (German, Augsburg, 1513–1579)

Artistdecorated by Jörg T. Sorg the Younger (Southern Germany, Augsburg, about 1525 – 1603)

Dateabout 1552

Mediumsteel with embossed, etched, blackened and gilded decoration, with modern brass, velvet, leather and steel

Dimensions36 × 18 × 15 cm (14 3/16 × 7 1/16 × 5 7/8 in.)
Cuisse: 1 lb, 9 oz (weight)
Poleyn: 12 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsAll major components are internally marked with HAM accession number in black on a white field.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.74.11

DescriptionLike the tassets, these are symmetrical, and decorated en suite. Each is laminated, of five upwardly overlapping lames, with a full length medial ridge, curved to the thigh and gently tapering to a point above the knee. The individual lames are formed like those of the tassets, and similarly articulated. The right defense has had leather of more recent vintage applied, while the left cuisse has the old lining-band rivets and fragments of the band beneath the heads. The topmost lame has a modern buckle-and-strap which encircles the back of the leg, and the top edge of this plate is pierced by keyhole-shaped slots at the ends and a single, medial hole. (The leather is only used when plates such as that preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum [M.472-1927] are mounted. This plate was probably for use in Stechkuriss, or the Freirennen when fitted with one-piece lower plates. See Wallace Collection A44, A45.) The basal edge of the terminal lame dips very slightly towards mid-width, and is fitted with a turning-pin and domed brass-capped stud. The edges are turned and roped as the tassets.

It should be noted that there seems to be a lame lost between the terminal lame and that above. The fit here is not good, the decoration does not align, and the presence of empty holes near the later rivets indicate relocation. The terminal lames do however align and fit properly with the poleyns, and seem to belong with them.

The laminated cuisses and the poleyns would have been part of the Harnasch (p. 76, fig. 18 of Gamber), Fussturnierharnisch (p. 71, fig. 9 of Gamber) and with the addition of the present tassets, the Fuss-Feldkueriss (p. 58-59, fig. 8).

POLEYNS: (Right: 13.5 oz., Left: 12 oz.) These are each of three lames, the mainlame curving out over the knee with a sharp ridge, having an integral moderately sized heart-shaped sidewing, and overlapping a single curved lamination above and below. Both of these are pierced with keyhole-shaped slots near the ends, the terminal lames having its smaller slot just inside of the medial line. The side edges of all plates, sidewings, and the basal edge of the terminal lame are inwardly turned and roped.

The poleyns are decorated en suite, the sidewings having an embossed gilded leaf on the blackened and stippled face, framed by gilded semi-circles as above, themselves bordered by a shallow ground. Extending onto the outer face of the mainplate from the sidewing is another embossed, gilded leafed motif, bordered by a flame-like blackened, stipple ground. The plates work on rivets and sliding-rivets. A modern buckle-and-strap encircles the knee. This was originally bifurcated on the inner end, attached to the rivets on which the lames are articulated.
ProvenancePer Stephen V. Grancsay in the Armory's 1961 catalogue, this armor was inherited from the Sachsen-Altenburg line by the Schwarzburg-Sondershauser in or after 1869. Ex collection, the Duke of Altenburg (Schloss Altenburg, Thuringia, Germany); Prince Schwarzburg-Sondershausen; Clarence H. Mackay (Harbor Hill, Roslyn, L.I., NY). Purchased by Museum on April 1, 1940 from Jacques Seligmann & Co. (NYC), agents for the estate of Clarence H. Mackay, their no. A-20-110. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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