Cuisses: M.13G-1941

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown (Possibly)

Entities

• Cuisses
• Poleyns

Categories

• Armour

Description

Two cuisses and poleyns almost forming a pair, for infantry or light cavalry wear without greaves. Each formed of a short, gutter-shaped cuisse and a winged poleyn of six lames of which the last extends downwards to form a short shin-defence. The cuisse is boxed in three vertical panels separated by a medial and a lateral ridge. Its upper edge is slightly convex with a plain, partial inward turn accompanied by a recessed border pierced, originally, with six-holes for lining-rivets of which the inner one on the left cuisse is now obscured by a welded repair. Three of the holes of the left cuisse, and four of the right are occupied by externally-flush rivets, of which the outer one on the right cuisse is replaced. A later pair of holes at the inner end of the border of the left cuisse have been closed with welding. The outer edge of each cuisse curves inwards to a rounded corner at its lower end. Attached within the upper end of the inner edge of each cuisse by a modern, round-headed rivet with a circular, internal washer is a modern, buff leather strap that passes around the back of the thigh to engage a single-ended buckle with a bevelled trapezoidal loop and rounded hasp that is secured by an externally-flush rivet at the upper end of the outer edge. The rivet on the left cuisse is replaced. Attached to the lower edge of each cuisse is a medially-ridged poleyn of six lames which overlap outwards from the third. The lames are connected to one another and to the cuisses at their outer ends by modern, externally-flush rivets. The edges of the first to fifth lames are cusped at their centres and at the articulation-points at each side. The third and main lame is shaped to the point of the knee, and has an oval, centrally-puckered wing, obtusely-pointed at the rear in the case of the left poleyn. The edge of the wing in both cases has a plain, partial inward turn accompanied by a recessed border except at the pucker. The point of the knee is decorated with a vertical, elongated, almond-shaped boss, decorated at its apex with file-roping in the case of the right poleyn. A similar, unroped, horizontal boss decorates the side of each poleyn just in front of the pucker of the wing. Attached within the wing, just to the front of this boss, by a modern, round-headed rivet with a circular, internal washer is a modern, buff-leather strap that terminates in a single-ended, tongued buckle with an oval loop on the left poleyn, a trapezoidal loop on the right poleyn, and rounded hasps on both. Each buckle engages a modern strap that passes around the rear of the knee and is attached by a modern, flat-headed rivet decorated with punched, radiating designs to the inner end of the main plate of the poleyn. The strap of the right poleyn is of buff leather, and that of the left poleyn, of polished leather. The gutter-shaped sixth lame of each poleyn forms a short shin-defence. Its inner, lower corner is cut away in a concave curve and decorated at the resultant edge with a plain, partial inward turn accompanied by a recessed border. The turn on the right poleyn is decorated with file-roping. Attached by an externally-flush rivet at the lower end of the outer edge of the shin-defence is a single-ended, tongued buckle with a trapezoidal loop and a rounded hasp that engages a modern buff-leather strap that passes around the rear of the calf and is attached within the lower end of the inner edge of the shin-defence by a modern round-headed rivet with a circular, internal washer. The centre of the lower edge of the right shin-defence is repaired with a welded patch. Part of the composite Spanish armour M.13A-K-1941.

Notes

History note: From the collection of Dr Bashford Dean, Riverdale, Long Island, New York. According to a manuscript note by F.H. Cripps-Day, dated December 1926, in his grangerised copy of G.F. Laking, A Record of European Armour and Arms, [section on jacks in volume titled 'mail'], now preserved in the library of the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, 'I exchanged [a jack] with Dean for a Gothic Spanish suit made up. I wanted a Gothic suit but parted with a rare piece'. The jack, from a house in Tonbridge, Kent, is now part of the Bashford Dean Memorial Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Mr Francis Henry Cripps-Day. Part of the composite Spanish armour M.13A-K-1941. Given by Mr F.H. Cripps-Day

Legal notes

Given by Mr F.H. Cripps-Day