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Christian's c. 1300 Harness

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Christian Tobler:
Greetings all,

Since we're swapping harness photos, here are some new ones of the c.1300 kit I'm putting together. The helm should be a rounded top one, and the hands remain problematic. The elements include:

Riveted hauberk & coif
Long gambeson
Padded cuisses w/knee cops
Frontal greaves
Long sword of war
Great helm
Wool surcoat made by Jessica Finley

Enjoy...CHT

Das Bill:
That looks *GOOD*, Christian. Hats off to Jessica on that surcoat. Where'd the padded cuisses with the knee cops come from?

The only part that looks slightly odd to my eye (and I'm being super nitpicky here) is that the leather used for the belt seems a little thick. From my understanding, most of these belts were actually made of pretty thin leather. You saw that one 12th c. Eric McHugh scabbard at my place, the one with the really comfortable belt suspension? From talks with Peter Johnson, it seems like that is more typical for sword belts.

But again, that's me being really, really nitpicky... otherwise, that's a damn good looking kit.

Sir Wolf:
wow nice work.

things to think about. longer hauberk with attached mittens. maybe some mail leggings with feet. smaller less decorative belt. coat of plates.

was the sword that long in 1300? i thought the majority were smaller.

hey, I've seen those legs. those are GDFB aren't they? :) see Ed, they look marvelous.

great kit Christian, Great Kit. Ed's got me working on mine now since my late 12thc is too far behind to hang out with him ;)

Christian Tobler:
Hey gents,

The belt is a kit-bashed MRL one. However, this wasn't meant to simulate the early 13th c. look, but the more chunky one we see on c.1290-1320ish English effigies, where it looks more substantial, and sometimes has some fittings attached. See the John de Creke and John d'Abernon effigies to see what I was looking for here - they're really quite chunky. That said, the MRL leather is pretty darned bulky, which makes the overlap look rather stiff. Really, this belt was much stiffer than I thought it'd be...but I needed an earlier style belt for a possible photo shoot, and this was expedient. Just to be clear - Bill - this is a later belt than the c.1210 one you have on your McHugh one - I really doubt all the later gee-gaws would be supported on that very early style of belt. Now, I don't have the complex attachment shown here to the scabbard, but this is one of the inspirations (and not the rosette details):



I'm hoping to do a mail gauntlet, a la what Dave Teague has done as sort of a pre-Wisby variant. He's making up a set like that - mail fingers, reinforced cuff. There are some German effigies, I believe that are suggestive of such a beast. I like the idea of the integrated mail mittens, but that would be difficult to add to this piece, plus the separate ones would work better for the Wisby-ish look too. But, we'll see...

At some point, I'll add mail legs that go up to the cuisses - there's little sense in adding the full thing up to the top of the leg under the cuisse (especially as we don't really know that's how they always did that). I'm hoping to find decent mail leggings in the near future.

The coat of plates is an option, but wouldn't fit under this surcoat. I have a good coat of plates - in fact, it's the exact same one shown under construction in Brian Price's book. At some point, I'll add more photos with the haubergeon in lieu of the hauberk, with the CoP and the full Wisby gauntlets I have. Here's the CoP, albeit from the back (I'm at far right):



Indeed, these are the cuisses from GDFB, modified to fit me. They only go down to size Large, so, as I told Ed earlier, I took the lacing panels off, and stitched them closed to make for both better sizing and aesthetics.

The sword: there are great swords of war in the late 13th c. It's the Battle of Benevento (1266) that Oakeshott cites regarding the "great swords of Germany". I was looking for a larger specimen as well here (and Type XIIIA's reach 40" in the blade...this is 38", I believe) because this rig is for a proposed William Wallace shoot (whose arms happen to match my Selohaar arms!). It's possible the blade of the sword attributed to Wallace is original (though the hilt cannot be), and it's a beast. Here's a similar one, dated 1300-50, sporting a 39.5" blade:



Thanks for the nit-picking guys - I really enjoy it. I am quite aware that there's some shortcomings here, and I love discussing them!

And thanks for the compliments as well. BTW - the gambeson is a two of a kind from Historic Enterprises that I bought off the rack at Pennsic a few years ago - all linen. The hauberk reaches just past its hem.

Now, wait'll you see the quartered Branagh-esque surcoat that Jessica made me...90 hours of hand embroidered heraldry over linen-lined black and red wool!

Best,

CHT

Sir Wolf:
HAH! i knew it was a GDFB. i am currently doing the same thing to mine with the leather knees!!!

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