Two Cuisses (part) Late 16th c.
Augsburg. Typical of the form of well made armors. Not a pair, but of the same style. In each case with a polyene of five plates the third overlapping the others. Central plate formed to the knee and extended at the lateral edge to a wing. Cuisses of four (right) and two (left - top plates missing,top remaining one associated) plates. Cuisse separates between the bottom and next plate. Most rivets with dapped copper alloy caps. Inward turned full rolls stepped where plates overlap on the primary edges. Roll at the edge of the wings with a tapered recess. Each wing with with a central cusp. Upper cuisse plates originally secured with sliding rivets laterally and leathers at the center and medial edge. Rivets also remain for a narrower leather around the outer edge of the cuisse. The main cuisse plate and first lame of the poleyene also have rivets for an internal central leather. Sections of the cuisses formerly secured by a button engaging a keyhole slot at the lateral side, two holes at the center of the lower plate which can be used as lace holes when the cuisses are worn short. When they are worn with the uppers, a pin on the upper plate engages the lateral hole. The medial side was secured with a turning pin on the upper plate engaging a keyhole in the lower plate. When tassets can be separated, the upper sections can be worn without the lower sections, so they have rolled lower edges. Upper cuisses are not worn without the lowers, so the lower edge of the upper cuisses are not rolled.
Cuisses which can be separated to be worn short or long are generally associated with garnitures and not munition armors.
These have unfortunately been somewhat adapted to form tassets. The top plate on the right has been trimmed at the upper edge and a single hole added to engage the post at the waist of a cuirassier breastplate. The left has lost its (likely two) top plates.
Weight (in their current partial state): left - 2 pounds 1.4 ounces (950g), right 2 pounds 9.4 ounces (1175g).
Similar cuisses can be found on Wallace collection item numbers A44-A48 attributed to Anton Peffenhauser. Another similar pair form part of Detroit Institute of Arts 53.196 dated to c. 1580 and attributed to Anton Peffenhauser. Similar geometry is also found on some armors attributed to Jacob Topf and dated to the 1580's in the KHM (the very high end and decorated A 1277 and the plain armor WA 772).
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This site last updated Fri Aug 30 10:25:04 EDT 2024