Closed Burgonet

Date1625–1630

Mediumblued steel with iron and fabric

Dimensions34 × 23 × 30 cm (13 3/8 × 9 1/16 × 11 13/16 in.)
4 lb, 15 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsWhat are apparently punched serial dots are found near mid-length on inside surfaces of nape lame (3 dots) & gorget flange of cheekpieces (two on right, one on left).

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1071

DescriptionDeep black-blue steel 2-piece rounded skull with low comb, integral flat fall. Base of skull with riveted single, pointed nape lame. Row of 12 lining-rivets, retaining some of the original woven lining band across brow & base of neck. Riveted above fall is fixed urved nasal bar. Large, hinged deeply cut out cheekpieces. Each cheekpiece drawn out in deep gorget flange. Right cheekpiece overlaps left, and is secured by pivot hook. Extending along basal edge of each cheekpiece is row of lining-rivet holes. Retains original lining strips and probably its original blued finish. A choice piece. The helmet has a deep, black-blue finish on all parts. It consists of a rounded, two-piece steel skull with a low comb overlapped longitudinally, and riveted together at the base of the neck and along the pointed, integral flat fall. There is no provision for a plume-pipe. The base of the skull is drawn out in a narrow flange to which a single, pointed nape defense of moderate depth is riveted at the sides. Above the inwardly turned, plain basal edge is a row of seven lining-rivet holes now vacant. A row of 12 near-flush lining-rivets retaining much of the woven lining-band extends across the brow and the base of the neck. At the anterior base of the comb above the fall is fixed, outwardly-curved nasal bar secured by a pair of domed rivets in the spade-shaped terminals above. This passes through a roughly cut slot in the fall to defend the facial opening. The large, hinged cheekpieces are deeply cut out, producing a V-shaped opening and are fashioned with a low, oblique ridge from the hinged to the facial opening above the well-formed, defined chin which is pierced on each half with sice holes in a rectangular pattern. Each cheekpiece has an L-shaped lining band secured by iron rivets. Below this, each cheekpiece is drawn out as a deep gorget flange which curved toward the chin where the right snapping over a pierced lug on the left, and locked by a pivot-hook on the right half. Extending along the basal edge of the cheekpiece is a row of empty, lining-rivet holes like those of the nape lame. The edge is similarly finished. While all of the components are original and contemporaneously assembled, the helmet is not homogeneous, and has been modified. The skull and probably the nape lame belong together, and were, in all likelihood, part of a closed-burgonet the form of which is represented by our number 1454, and examples IV.485, .447, .448 and .589 in the Armouries, H.M. Tower of London (These, however, differ from one another in minor details. See Claude Blair, European Armour, fig. 141, p. 205 for IV.448 and Dufty, op. cit., plt. CVI for .485.) The cheekpieces are not a pair (that of the right bears traces of incised line decoration near the hinge, while the left does not), but both were once of the full form represented by the group cited above. This is evidenced by the treatment of the facial opening which was cut down (the traces of a circular breathe is found at the anterior terminal of the ridge on the right cheekpiece), the differing angles of the ridges of each defense, and the less-than-perfect fit of the cheeks to one another and the skull/nape defense. In addition, a vacant hole at the anterior inner corner of the gorget flange of the left cheekpiece suggests an earlier location for a pivot-hook. The nasal defense was a contemporary modification, as shown by the rough cutting of the slot in the fall, which has cut through the hole for one of the rivets which secured the skull halves at this point. All of these changes were probably made by the Pembroke armorers just prior to the English Civil War, or at a period early on in the conflict, when both sides made use of pre-existing stocks of equipment suitably updated. (For an example very similar to ours, but possibly of English origin, ca. 1642, see Philip J. Haythornthwaite, The English Civil War, 1642-1651, p. 49.)
Label TextThis helmet comes from the arsenal at Wilton House, the seat of the earls of Pembroke in Wiltshire, England. In the Renaissance it was common for the nobility to stock military equipment to equip their followers in peace and war. Records from 1635 show that the Pembroke arsenal contained enough arms and armor "of the common sort" to "compleately furnish & set out 1000 Foote and Horse." However, this helmet is of moderately high quality, not of the common sort. It was probably issued to one of the mounted guard who accompanied the earl as part of the entourage expected of any high-ranking nobleman. The helmet remained in the Pembroke family for nearly 300 years, until it was sold to an English collector in 1923, at a time when many aristocratic families were selling heirlooms to ease their financial troubles. ProvenanceEarls of Pembroke & Montgomery (Wilton House, Salisbury, about 1625/30 to June 1923) Sotheby's (London; to 14 June 1923) Dr. Richard Williams (England; to his death, 1974 (?) Royal Armouries, H. M. Tower of London (to June 1974) Sotheby's (London; to 18 June 1974) Peter Dale, Ltd. (London; 18 June 1974 to 23 July 1985). Purchased by the Armory on 23 July 1985, from Peter Dale Ltd. (London), his number 3600. Price paid £ 1,750.00. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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