Left Cuisse

Culture German

Date1620–1625

Mediumsteel, leather, paint and fabric

Dimensions45 × 32 × 15.5 cm (17 11/16 × 12 5/8 × 6 1/8 in.), 3 lb 7 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsBoth poleyns have red-painted "N. 1." in script, at the inside bottom of the terminal lame at the medial line.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1148.11

DescriptionLeg-harness (tassets and cuisses): Pair but unrelated to other components, and deriving from a higher-quality armor, though perhaps associated to the harness within the working lifetime. There are no maker's marks or view marks visible, but for reasons described below, there is a possibility that they are of North German origin. The tassets are fire-blued to an icy blue color, and scratched to reveal lines of bright metal underneath; the beveled edges of the plates may also once have been left bright, cf. 2014.1154.

These are of the long voluminous laminated form worn with cuirassier harness. Each is detachable at the sixth lame from the top where they are secured with a pierced lug and pivot hook having a pointed base, and a domed stud in a keyhole slot. This upper section is oblong, with rounded basal corners. The defense broadens as it extends down over the top of the leg, and consists of six deep level lames overlapping upward. Each lame is of more-or-less equal depth over its length as it curves across the leg to the hollow-flanged plain ends. The upper and lower lames differ somewhat in their shape. The top lame is irregularly trapezoidal and is transversely bent to rest on the angled flange of a breastplate. It is pierced at the medial top edge with a large circular hole for a mounting stud. All the lames are riveted to three internal leathers only, which terminate on the basal lame. This is the deepest lame, and is rounded at the corners, which are fitted with a pierced lug and a domed stud. The lower edge is inwardly turned, probably over a wire core.

At the ends of all lames below the topmost are double rows of domed rivets; those of the inner row are decorative, and those of the outer hold or once held the lining-band which survives to some degree overall, beneath flattened heads within.

The cuisse is similarly constructed, and tapers to the poleyn below. The lining-bands retain shredded pieces of a green, silky fabric lining sewn to them. This section of each tasset is constructed of seven lames of similar depth, attached to a deep plate above the knee and shaped to the leg, riveted to a poleyn of three plates.

The poleyn mainlame is gently outwardly rounded over the knee, straight-cut on the inner edge, and has a heart-shaped side-wing of moderate size which curves slightly behind the knee, and has an inwardly turned, rounded plain edge. The mainlame overlaps and is riveted to a narrow lamination above, pointed at the ends, and a deep curved plate below which is shaped to the knee. This plate is embossed to appear as if it has an overlapping lamination that is cusped at center and below the rivets on either end. The edge of the plate is turned as above. Extending from mid-height on the face of the deep plate above the poleyn, and extending down to the bottom of the mainlame is a low medial ridge. The poleyn is held to the leg by a transverse buckle-and-strap behind the knee, riveted to the inside face of the sidewing and the edge opposite.

The buckles of both tassets differ slightly, but they are both of better-than-imitation quality, of iron, and generally oblong with tongues.

The tassets were once ice-blue in color, with the upper edge and medial lines of the plates accented by narrow lines scratched into the bluing, revealing the white metal beneath. The perimeter borders were similarly decorated by a wide band produced with such scratches, and filled in a ladder-like fashion with wide-spaced pairs of "rungs". This method of decoration is found on Saxon jousting armor 2014.1154, and when taken into consideration with the Netherlandish form of pivot-hook terminals, may indicate a North German or North-west European source.
ProvenancePurchased by Museum from J. Gluckselig & Sohn (Vienna, Austria) on December 1, 1936. Paid $300 for lot HAM#s 2383-2387. Old record states this armor was dealer's number 28, and mentions another "tag 1145". Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, Janaury 2014.

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