Mortuary Helmet

Culture English

Date1600s–1700s

Mediumiron

Dimensions44.5 × 34.3 × 30.5 cm (17 1/2 × 13 1/2 × 12 in.), 6 lb (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1127

DescriptionMain skull plate is from a harquebusier helmet, mid-1600s, with attached brow-plate from the same or a similar helmet. The front and back gorget plates come from two separate pikeman's armors of the same period. The chinplate, backplate, and face-bars were made for the funerary assemblage in the late 1600s or 1700s.

Traces of red paint within.
Label TextArms and armor were the distinctive attributes of a knight, and gave rise to the heraldic symbols that proclaimed a knight's identity and status. The influence could also go the other way: here a military helmet has been given showy but impractical face-bars to make it resemble the pictures of helmets used in heraldry. This helmet would have hung over the tomb of a gentleman as a mark of his status in life.ProvenanceCollection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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