Closed Burgonet for a Field Armor, from a garniture probably made for Ludwig Ungnad von Weissenwolf auf Sunegg

Artist Desiderius Helmschmid (German, Augsburg, 1513–1579)

Artistdecorated by Jörg T. Sorg the Younger (Southern Germany, Augsburg, about 1525 – 1603)

Dateabout 1552

Mediumsteel with embossed, etched, blackened and gilded decoration, with modern brass, velvet, leather and steel

Dimensions33 × 22 × 31 cm (13 × 8 11/16 × 12 3/16 in.), 8 lb, 9 oz (weight with buffe)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsAll major components are internally marked with HAM accession number in black on a white field.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.74.1

DescriptionClosed-burgonet with pivoted fall and bevor shaped to the chin, and a falling-buffe. Such headpieces would have been part of the Harnisch (p. 73, fig. 18 of Gamber) and the Feldkueriss (p. 58, 89, fig. 26). The skull and bevor were originally from the close-helmet of the Feldkueriss.

The ovoidal, one-piece SKULL has a roped comb of medium height which is pierced at the top for a knot or tie of the plume; the three domed rivets at the base of the comb presumably mark the location of a lost plume holder. Below, the skull sides are fitted with sets of four domed brass grommets for adjustment of the lost lining. Pivoting on a common set of removable bolts at the temples are the fall and bevor assemblies. The shanks of these bolts are squared for the pivot-holes, preventing loosening; the shank tips are transversely pierced for some kind of cotter pin that may have rested in the transverse lines bisecting the petalled nuts, and perhaps bent over into the indents at the ends of these lines. The petalled nuts are blued and are concave on the inside. Some original gilding can be seen on the lobe foliage in areas less accessible to cleaning.

The flat FALL is from the lost burgonet. It is pointed, and curved across the facial opening, sweeping rearward in rounded terminals. These overlap those of the bevor assembly. There are cracks in the brim above the eyes on both sides; the right side has what appears to be an old repair reinforcing this point.

The BEVOR has a well-formed chin with sharp medial ridge, and locks to the skull at the right side by snapping over a peg of a spring-catch with fluted conical button; this appears to be an old replacement. The facial opening is bordered by a shallow recessed band filled by flush lining-rivets retaining an old, restored lining band within. The right side of this border near the chin is cut out with an L-shaped notch for the catch of the upper-bevor of the close-helmet.

The neck of the helmet is flanged front and back, and encircled by a row of brass capped iron domed rivets, later replacements which retain a lining band within. Riveted to the ends of the flanges are the front and rear halves of the two gorget plates whose terminal lames (like the edge of the fall) have inward, roped turns over a wire.

Problems with the alignment of decorative bands on the lames, coupled with the presence of now-filled or vacant holes at the ends suggest that both front and rear terminal plates are from an exchange helmet (burgonet?).

The helmet is decorated en suite with the rest of the armor. The primary bands, at the base of the comb and on either side of the skull, edge of the fall, and the bevor and buffe medial line (including gorget plates front and rear), consist of a recessed blackened and stippled band between a set of narrow bright fillets, filled by etched ascendent candelabrum decoration, musical and martial trophies. These bands are framed by repeated embossed semi-circles (save buffe lames which are only etched), each with a divergent foliate tendril motif on a gilded and stippled ground. Each of the semi-circles is framed by a thin blackened etched line.

The secondary bands are of three forms: 1) those at the turned edge of the gorget plates are blackened and stippled in a shallow recessed band that is filled with running vine tendrils extending outwards from the medial line, interspersed with martial and musical trophies, and some grotesque dolphin motifs; 2) the fall edges, top plate of buffe below the turn, and upper and side edges of bevor have candelabrum work on a gilded, stippled group; 3) the facial opening of the skull and bevor is bordered by a shallow recessed gilded stippled band with gilded vine tendrils and martial trophies.
ProvenancePer Stephen V. Grancsay in the Armory's 1961 catalogue, this armor was inherited from the Sachsen-Altenburg line by the Schwarzburg-Sondershauser in or after 1869. Ex collection, the Duke of Altenburg (Schloss Altenburg, Thuringia, Germany) Prince Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Clarence H. Mackay (Harbor Hill, Roslyn, L.I., NY). Purchased by Museum on April 1, 1940 from Jacques Seligmann & Co. (NYC), agents for the estate of Clarence H. Mackay, their no. A-20-110. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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