The client wanted a pair of Cuisse from the mid to late 14th Century to help with their depiction of a very wealthy knight or similar ranked individual. During research we found the Thomas Beauchamp Cuisses from the 1369 Monumental effigy. We thought that the cuisses had enough interesting points to not be a standard pair of Cuisse regularly seen all the while helping the client with their desired look.

As the customer was local to the workshop we drove out to him and did the measurements at his house in the clothing he would be wearing with the cuisses. At this time we took the advantage to measure for greaves, although these would be coming at a later date. During this time we finalised the desired look so fuller research could be continued later; as mentioned before the Monumental Effigy of Thomas Beauchamp 1369 was found and suggested due to the look of the build.

Close inspection of Thomas's Cuisse show a series of dots clearly below the poleyn and suggest there may be something similar above the poleyn as well. The lames are difficult to see, but one can be seen below the poleyn and is the part of the armour holding the 'dots' mentioned earlier, in addition the dots above seem to do very little unless they held a splinted cuisse to the poleyn. However, when working from any worn or damaged effigy a certain amount of extrapolation can be required. After several discussions it was decided that basing the work on Thomas's legs, we would go for a solid cuisse (as the customer wanted this look) that would negate the need for the visible dots. The base of the cuisse was in turn based upon the legs from the Chatres Cathedral and would see the dish of the lame in the cuisse instead.

The poleyn seem quite large in the effigy, rather than the more frequently seen narrower versions found elsewhere; particularly starting around this period. In character with this the poleyn for the customer are also a little larger. The lower lame, rather than ending in a demi greave run instead to a leather to give the dags seen on the effigy and give a purpose to the dots seen on the lower part of the effigy.

A sketch of the cuisse was shown to the customer and agreement sought on all of the above points. Once received work was scheduled. The customer sent the required deposit, based upon the final quote.

A few days before the work started the customer was sent an email explaining that work would be starting soon.

After completing work each day the customer was sent a few photographs of the cuisses progression and a covering email explaining the pictures. Some of these images are below. These update emails are sent with every commission we receive.

Half way through the basic build the customer came to the work shop to try on the unpolished cuisses and ensure a good fit. Turning up this time in jeans there was some concern over the tailoring of the fit, but after trying them on over his original chausses everything fitted as snugly as it should.

Here are a few of the update email pictures. Depending upon the type of work you will receive between 3-10 pictures a day during the works progress.