Our Products
We currently have three product lines spanning 14th-16th century. For more information on each, please click on the profiles below. Individual pieces are also listed on this page. For sales enquiries, please email us using the button below.
Leopold Breastplate
Based on the Churburg s.14, this is a globular breastplate with a stoprib. The style was ubiquitous during the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Due to its simplicity and elegance, versions of it (of varying quality) were worn by militia, men-at-arms and even French knights at Agincourt.
True to our company's values, this is a munition version. We have gone for an authentic finish - look closely and you can see fouling, the grain of the grind, file scratches near irregular rolled edges, even hammer marks here and there. On the inside, the breastplate is left rough from the hammer where you can see the armourer's skill and labour. There's true beauty in its utilitarian look.
Source:
Ruestkammer Schloss Churburg-Schluderns, s.14 [Extant]
Price: £390
Bascinet
The general shape of our bascinet is based on an Italian one dated circa 1390 at the Royal Armouries but the gap at the front of ours is narrower. This style was found in England, Scotland and Northern Italy, sometimes with a maille aventail sewn under the skull rather than attached to the outside with vervelles.
This version forgoes the maille for a lighter weight and more comfortable fit. The skull is 2mm mild steel formed of two halves. The hood and aventail has a linen outer with cotton batting and liner.
We also offer a version with maille attached as described above.
Royal Armouries item IV.497 [Extant]
Price: £400
Leopold Arm Harness
The 14th century saw the emergence of two schools of arm harness. The most visible in artwork of the time was the fully-articulated type with couters (elbows) riveted to lames which were, in turn, riveted to the upper and lower cannon.
The second type was the three-part construction. This saw the couters connected to the uppers and lowers with leathers. Although a simpler construction and not as well represented in extant pieces, this type of construction would go on to be the dominant arm harness of the 15th century.
Simple rondel spaulders complete this arm harness, most popular in Italy but seen in use throughout Europe in both the 14th and 15th centuries.
Sources:
Pistoia Cathedral altarpiece, Italy, 1376 [Effigy]
Child’s arm harness (1390), Chartres Cathedral [Extant]
Soldiers at the Holy Sepulchre, Église Saint-Nicolas, Haguenau, dép. Bas-Rhin, France, c1360 [Effigy]
Grave of Gerhard von Rieneck, 1382, Friedhof Grünsfeld, Main-Tauber-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany [Effigy]
Arms price: £390
Spaulders price: £85
Richard Breastplate
Advances is metalworking technologies including the water wheel-powered hammer saw plate armour becoming more accessible to common infantry. Retained troops would have been issued this armour by nobles.
Notably, more complex breastplates would have become more available like this one. There are at least 13 extant sister pieces in this style, all from German and Italian exporters. We selected two of them to form the basis of our breastplate.
It consists of a two-part breast and plackart, faulds and steep, rolled edges. Most of the extant pieces have a central rivet with a floral design on imported from milan. As a nod to this, we have stamped our own in the style of tiny ancient Macedonian shields
Sources:
Stadtmuseum Muenchen 876 [Extant]
Stadtmuseum Muenchen 843 [Extant]
Price: £550
Richard Arm Harness
By the 1450s, three-piece arm harness had dominated the export market for munitions grade kit. The simple construction kept costs down compared to its articulated peers while the larger couter still afforded excellent protection.
Our design is Anglo-German based on Talhoffer's manuscripts, English effigies and engravings. In the 1450s, German arm harness had small, separate spaulders. As the century progressed, these were lengthened and integrated into the rerebrace in the gothic style. In England, they remained separate as pauldrons were preferred.
We've removed all fluting and floral finished associated with higher-quality English armour to give a simple but elegant arm harness. Uniquely for off-the-shelf armour of this style, it includes a closed lower cannon and full couter, ideal for billmen.
Sources:
Ms.Thott.290.2º, Hans Talhoffer, 1459 [Manuscript]
British Museum, engraving, two knights in armour; facing each other etc, c. 1480-90 [Engraving]
Royal Armouries, ADMIN PH A3.368 [Extant]
Three-part arms price: £410
Spaulders price: £190
Richard Gauntlets
The transition away from hourglass gauntlets with individual fingers towards mitten gauntlets coming higher up the arms was one of the core evolutions in 15th century European armour as mobility was traded for protection.
Our gauntelts are based on an extant pair from South Germany currently displayed at the Royal Armouries. We have made ours wider to accommodate a closed lower cannon. We have also merged the top two mitten lames for added protection.
Source:
Royal Armouries, iii.1230 [Extant]
Price: £320
Richard Sallet
The sallet was the most common European helmet of the 15th century. The versatility of the design saw many different versions, from the sweeping, long-tailed German style to the shorter, more rounded Milanese type.
Our Franco-Burgundian sallet is based on extant pieces including a well-preserved one at the Met Museum. The open-faced skull features a prominent, pointed ridge, simple brow reenforce and shorter tail. The rivets are the same as we used for the breastplate and unique to us.
Source:
Met Museum, 29.150.13 [Extant]