This club would have been made by the London Golf Company in Bishopsgate who patented the Cuirass range of clubs. Cuirass is a piece of armour where the breastplate and backplate are fastened together and so, in the golf club bearing the name, the metal faceplate and soleplate form one piece. There are two screws securing the faceplate and two the metal on the sole. The club is through-hoselled i.e. the shaft goes all the way through the head and is sawn flush.

It has been stamped for George Duncan (in signature), the Open Champion of 1920, and the crown is also marked 'Cuirass' and 'Cleek', all markings picked out with traces of gold paint.

A wooden cleek is fairly unusual though Harry Vardon noted it coming into vogue in 1912 when he described it as 'being helpful to the bad golfer because it has a deeper and broader face than the iron-headed cleek'. And you thought hybrid woods were a recent innovation?

Another unusual feature of this club is that the head is made from dogwood even though persimmon was pretty much ubiquitous by this time.

The hickory shaft is straight and carries a polished burgundy leather grip, a first replacement from sometime in the 1920s.

Price $470.00 Reference: S272