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: £350
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
Leopold Composite Gauntlets
Hourglass gauntlets were the most popular form of plate hand protection of the 14th and early 14th century. Dozens of extant pieces exist though there are much fewer pieces with the fingers still attached. Some plate fingers have survived and there are theories about leather 'training' gauntlets.
However, we were taken by the gauntlets on the Soldiers at the Holy Sepulchre with their mix of scale types. We've kept ours simple in the munition tradition - a demi-gauntlet with a maille glove. Our maille is 7mm wedge riveted with 6mm washers providing a fine weave to protect against slashing.
Sources:
Soldiers at the Holy Sepulchre, Église Saint-Nicolas, Haguenau, dép. Bas-Rhin, France, c1360 [Effigy]
Musee des Beaux Arts, Chartres [Extant]
Price: £350
Leopold Kettle Hat
The kettle hat has been around in one form or another since at least the 12th century and, arguably, still saw use in the 20th century.
Our version has the high, bascinet-style skull with a pointed, sloping brim most associated with French, English and Lithuanian troops of the period. These weren't just worn by militia - plenty of manuscripts show mounted men-at-arms and knights wearing them, usually combined with a maille or scale aventail and occasional proto-bevors.
Sources:
Bataille de Crécy, 1346, Grandes Chroniques de France, British Library, Cotton MS Nero E. II pt.2, f.152v c.1415 [Manuscript]
BNF Français 312 Speculum historiale 128r, Bibliothèque Nationale, France, 1396 [Manuscript]
Price: £360
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: £490
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: £300
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]