Thomas was approached to undertake this unique commission of Richard III’s coat of arms for his tombstone in Leicester Cathedral. Working in close collaboration with James Elliott, maker of the tomb itself, and the architects, van Heyningen & Hayward, the shield was set into the Kilkenny plinth on the tomb. Over 350 pieces of stone were used in the shield and each lion’s head has 19 individually worked pieces of stone, most of which are only around  1cm tall. It took over two months’ work to design and make this shield using incredibly valuable and rare stones. Made entirely using traditional Florentine pietra dura techniques used during the Renaissance, this was a once-in-a-lifetime project.

In-depth research informed Thomas’s choice of stones for the shield, with the design needing to be approved for accuracy by the College of Arms.