Close Helmet circa 1550-70
English or Flemish. One piece bowl with high deeply roped comb sweeping from the skull, with an engraved line delineating the transition. There is a somewhat later hole in the comb that was used to secure a funerary crest. This has been mostly repaired by means of a welded patch. Visor with divided eye slot with a roped step below and pierced for ventilation below that. The top and front points of the visor cracked with later internal patch and an old patch near the pivot on the right side. Ventail sweeping out to a central point with rolled and roped upper border interrupted on the right side by a notch for the lifting peg for the visor. Visor, ventail and bevor pivoted on common (replaced) bolts. Visor with a replaced lifting peg. Ventail and bevor secured by sneck hooks engaging pierced pegs on the right side. The hooks formed with integral wider areas to make them easier to engage with the finger. Two gorget lames front and back, rear two replaced. Lower edge of the neck lames formed with an inward turned roped roll. This helmet survived because it was used as a funerary achievement over a tomb in an English church, and it shows the typical damage from extensive oxidation and a repaired hole in the crest which would have secured the funerary spike used to secure a crest. There are signs of the funerary paint that was applied in the form of foliate scrolls and bands in gold on grey. This is most obvious on the bevor which would have been somewhat defended from damage by its position. With the exception of the modern replacements, the parts of this helmet are most likely not associated (skull, visor, ventail, bevor and possibly front gorget lames). This is a nice example of a typical English or Flemish type of helmet from the mid 16th century. A similar helmet without the divided sight may be found on RA II.64 an armour from the Earls of Pembroke at Wilton House. That armour is very similar in many details to A-1 in this collection, with which it is displayed. Similar helmets are illustrated in Cripps-Day 1922. Many funerary helmets have been much more heavily adapted when they were hung over the tombs. This one has its original overall appearance. Displayed as part of item number A-1.
Measurements: weight 6 pounds 6.6 ounces (2910g).
All thicknesses vary significantly. The skull varies between .055-.10, mostly .06-.08, bevor mostly around .050, ventail around .060, visor around .040.
Not for sale.
Italian Close Helmet circa 1580
One-piece skull, visor, upper and lower bevor and 3 neck lames front and back. The skull rising to a tall roped comb (small holes near the top of the comb and one small brazed repair) swept slightly back, bordered by incised lines, with circular holes over the each ear in the form of a circle of 8 holes with a central hole. A plume holder is secured to the base of the skull around the back of the crest. The edges of the plume holder decorated with filed notches and cusps, the surface engraved with a series of lines forming downward pointed chevrons. Pointed visor with horizontal vision sight divided centrally, pointed lifting-peg fitting into the upper bevor. The upper bevor fits the visor exactly, the upper edge curved in at the back of the eyeslot. Pierced with circular breaths in the form of a circle of 8 holes with a central hole (matching the holes in the skull, but forming a larger circle). on the right and pivoted at the same points as the chin-piece. Chin-piece and upper bevor secured by hooks which engage in to flattened pegs pierced with a hole. Face hole of the chin-piece bordered by a roped inward-turned roll. Face edge of the skull plain with single engraved line. Lining rivets around the face hole flush on the outside. Three neck-plates at front and rear (lower two rear plates replaced), the bottom ones each with turned and roped border and an additional roped ridge parallel to the border. Similar to the helmet on B-13 from Mantova. Displayed as part of item number A-114.
Weight: 6 pounds 11.2 ounces (3,045 g).
Thickness: Ventail .040-.070 mostly .045-.055. Variable from one spot to the next. Skull mostly .035-.045 in the back and sides, thicker in front. Still quite variable but larger areas .050-.070. Bevor mostly .045-.060 with a few spots on the left side up to .09. In general relatively thin and quite variable.
Not for sale.
Close Helmet circa 1580
Italian or French. One piece skull with high roped comb, visor with single eye slit, ventail pierced with a circle of breaths on the right, and bevor. Bevor with roped inward turned roll at the edge of the face opening. Visor, ventail and bevor pivoted on common pivots. Bevor and ventail secured by hooks on the right. Visor and ventail decorated with single incised lines. Edge of the visor lightly roped. Lining rivets at the forhead and neck edges of the bowl. Front and back with single neck lames, each with outward turned roped border and an additional parallel raised ridge. Visor with lifting peg at the right. Good internal patches in the skull, bevor and ventail. The form of the visor (relatively flat and straight and without a central piece dividing the eyeslit) and ventail (mostly flat without additional form at the pivots or corners of the eye) is similar to the form of the helmets on the French armors that survive in the Musee de L'Armee. It is likely that the rear neck lame is a replacement and the front lame may originally have been from the rear.
Weight 5 pounds 4 ounces (2665g).
Not for sale.
Italian closed burgonet circa 1620
Skull formed of 2 pieces, the right side overlapping the left. Seam forms a crease, not a raised comb. 2 halves are riveted together. Decorative filing at the crease to simulate roping and a pair of parallel lines on each side of the roping. Matching parallel lines on the edges of the peak, bevor and neck lames. Small movable peak of round form. Bevor extending up to cover the cheeks and form a 'Y' shaped hole. Peak and bevor pivoted on the same rivets. Single neck lames at the front and back with rolled lower edges. Rolls decorated with simple filed roping. Bevor secured by later strap and buckle. Overall very light weight like many of the munition morions and open burgonets. Cleaned on the outside, showing remains of modern silver paint on the inside of the neck lames.
It is likely that this helmet originally had a visor. This more complete configuration is illustrated in item number A-381.
Measurements: Weight: 3 pounds 2.6 ounces (1435g).
Not for sale.
Close Helmet early 17th c.
Probably French. Consisting of a skull, bevor, visor and ventail. The skull and visor decorated with flutes radiating from the center of the skull. Two piece skull with flat crest rising to a blunt point at the center. The two parts of the bowl joined with a round roll at the top of the crest (the right side rolled over the left). The roll decorated with fine roping. Bowl with integral neck flare. Edge of the face hole with a narrow finely roped inward turned border and a parallel recessed band. Bevor formed to the chin with an integral flare at the neck en-suite with the bowl. The edge of the neck flares with a finely roped inward turned roll (turned over wire) and a parallel recessed border ensuite with the rolls and border on the bowl. Visor with central ridge continuing the crest from the bowl. Divided eyeslots also divided horizontally with a central roped ridge. Ventail decorated with eye shaped raised bands on both sides, the center recessed and pierced at the top. Overall heavily pitted. Losses to the edges of the neck flares. Ventail cracked at the center and with a repair to the right arm. Hook thta would have secured the ventail lost. Visor lifting peg lost.
Measurements: thickness of skull measured on the right side generally .075-.095 in. One spot seems to measure .105.
The interior of the bevor flare with a label "2009.6.6." This appears to be an old inventory number and it matches the scheme found on several other items obtained from the same source. The collection has not been identified.
The form of the skull - formed in two pieces, fluted decoration and integral neck flare all point to a French origin for the piece. There are some comparable pieces (nicer and in better condition) in the Musee de L'Armee in Paris. The relatively large eye slot is most common in the 17th c. (some French helmets from the late 16th c. share this feature). This seems to be part of a design change where lances and arrows were less of an issue, and bullets were the primary concern.
Not for sale.
Close Helmet mid 17th c.
Two piece bowl, the halves secured by a roll at the top of a short comb. Pivoting brim secured on common rivets with the bevor (rivets replaced). Single neck and tail lames. The edge of the bowl at the face decorated with an inward turned plain roll with parallel single incised line ensuite with the face hole of the bevor. Secondary edges of the bevor and brim with single incised line. Patches in the neck lames. Sneck hook engaging a peg at the right side of the neck to secure the bevor closed. Open face. Significant damage to the left side of the skull. Skull deformed at the back. Interestingly, given this damage, much of the surface of the right side of the skull, brim and bevor may be original - ground smooth and retaining grind marks.
Not for sale.
Close Helmet mid 17th c.
One piece bowl with a low comb. Top of the comb lightly roped. Pivoted brim. Bevor, visor and brim on common pivot points. Simple flat visor. Neck lames front and back. Edge of the brim, neck lames and bottom of the eye slot on the visor with roped rolls. The turns on the brim and neck lames turned inward, the rolls on the eye slot turned outward. Edges of the brim, visor and bevor with single incised line decoration. Visor can be held closed with a sneck hook on the right side. Bevor was likely held closed with a strap and buckle around the neck. Lining rivets lost. Surface appears to have been rough from the hammer, now cleaned. Pivots and neck lame rivets replaced with modern bolts and nuts. My guess is that the piece was disassembled for cleaning, the lining rivets removed and it was reassembled with nuts and bolts. The pivot bolts were decorated to look like nice old pivots. The right side of the brim at the pivot point damaged.
Bowl may be an early conversion - it has a low, tapered, and wide comb shape that is more typical of many late 16th c. Italian helmets. I expect that this illustrates the original configuration of item number A-59. Many of these seem to have lost their visors - quite probably during their working life as open faced helmets became more common.
Not for sale.
Close Helmet 18th c. and earlier
Consisting of a bowl, visor, bevor and single neck lame front and back. Plain one piece bowl with wide rounded and roped crest. Bevor formed to the chin, pivoted at the upper end of each side from the bowl. Bowl and bevor each with a single neck lame. Neck lames with a simple bumped border at the edge. Visor povoted on common points with the bevor and formed of a frame with arms and a large face opening covered with vertically bars. Skull with crudely secured reinforcing plate over most of the crest and inside the front. The interior reinforce covers the brow area above the visor and is offset to provide more coverage on the left side than the right, fixing a crack on the left side of the skull. Visor secured closed with hooks in the bevor - a normal hook engaging a peg on the right and an internal hook on the left. Covered overall with older dark paint with losses. There are some small remains of colored paint - red and gold on the exterior. Interior of the skull painted with a large P on the right side and B344 or 844 on the left side in yellow paint. Some additional red paint. Remains of paper tags glued to the interior (not enough remains to read). Interior of the front gorget plate marked with a rectangular collection tag - 2009.6.8. Collection not identified.
Measurements: Thickness measured in the left rear .081 in. - .10 in., measured on the right .08-.105 in. Bevor .048-.066 in.
This is an interesting piece. The skull, bevor and neck lames were almost certainly made in 1530-50. After it's normal working life for use in warfare, the helmet was adapted for use in the Gioco del Ponte. The patch inside the front of the skull stabilizes a crack in the skull. The patch over the crest covers up major cracks and losses to the crest. Inspection shows that the crest was originally aggressively roped and it was taller than the current form. The neck lames have since been re-attached a little higher than their original position, likely to deal with losses in the main plates where they were secured and to cover up the crack at the transition from the chin to neck flare. It is also possible that they intentionally shortened the neck plates to allow for more movement. They also replaced the original visor with the the barred visor that is typical for GP helmets and added the crude reinforces. Thoughts before I received the piece - Some helmets designed for war use in the 16th and 17th c. are pretty thin. That is all that is needed to stop the relatively small number of actual hits a helmet will take in combat. It is reasonable to assume that the riveted internal and external patches were added to limit the likely damage from being bashed with wooden shields. Other surviving helmets for the GP have reinforcements added to the skull. These vary in style and elegance of manufacture. Having some experience with modern combat with simulated weapons, bashing away on each other and avoiding maintenance requires a heavier/thicker/reinforced helmet than you would often need for war. Once received I have more thoughts. Reinforcement may be part of the goal, but I think that the primary reason for the reinforcements was to resolve issues with the condition of the helmet when it was converted. I think that there were major losses in the comb and a crack in the front left of the skull. So the "reinforces" allowed them to cover up damage and make the helmet usable.
The Gioco del Ponte was a mock combat held off and on from the Middle Ages until 1807 in the center of Piza on a bridge over the river Arno. The combatants use elongated club like shields (targone) to bash each other. The goal of the game was to push the other team off of the bridge. The armor used in these combats was usually old and out of date and "updated" to fit the needs of the game. The most commonly found pieces are helmets, breastplates and backplates. Images of combatants show that they also wore shoulder protection extending down the upper arms and faulds extended to cover the groin. Sometimes the helmets are nearly complete 17th c. helmets, other times they are pretty heavily modified. Some of the earliest are formed from some nice 15th c. armets with the parts riveted together and trimmed. They are often, but not always marked "GP" in crudely chiseled letters. You can see an example of this on the backplate that forms part of item number A-267. There is a fine example of this type of helmet along with a breast and back in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (012.134a and b). The Metroplitan example is still painted, but this seems to have been refreshed. Most have been cleaned. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also owns an example of the shields (targone) used in this contest (14.25.770). The WAM collection also includes one of these helmets (2014.1078) and several targone. One of them is 2014.773.
Not for sale.