Close Helmet with Bellows Visor

Culture Southern German , Nuremberg

Date1525–1530

Mediumsteel

Dimensions29 × 22 × 29 cm (11 7/16 × 8 11/16 × 11 7/16 in.), 4 lb 15 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsNuremberg view-mark, anterior right edge of bevor.

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.1152.1

DescriptionSkull of 1 piece, with low roped comb bordered with thin incised line. Modern rivets retain a restored nape defense of 3 lames. Skull secured to bevor by spring-catch. Bevor has similarly formed edges, & pronounced, well-developed chin with medial ridge.

Associated to other components. It is made of components from at least three different helmets. Skull is of one piece, with low roped comb bordered each side with a thin incised line. Skull encircled with a row of nine slightly domed iron rivets and roughly octagonal washers (one at right rear lacking its washer) at the base of the neck, and seven flush rivets with flattened internal heads over the plane edged brow. All rivets retain fragments of the leather lining strap. On either side of the skull, at the anterior edge below the rivets, and to the rear of the visor pivots, are pairs of punched holes, probably for the liner drawstrings. The side edges are finished with a shallow, sunken plain border edged with thin incised lines and an inwardly turned, file-marked edge.

Two modern, flattish iron rivets retain a restored nape defense of three slightly flaring, articulated lames, similarly bordered. The skull is secured to the associated bevor by means of a spring catch working on an irregularly triangular iron strip riveted to the skull at the upper end. There is no plume pipe. (Cf. similar skulls in Bosson, 14, 122; cat.#12; also Sotheby & Co,, lot 86).

The associated bevor has similarly formed edges, and a pronounced, well developed chin with medial ridge. There are no gorget lames, the defense being limited to the downward, curved flange of the anterior edge. This is stamped with the Nuremberg view mark within the sunken border at right front. The facial opening is slightly cusped at the medial line of the chin, and has an edge inwardly turned and file marked, in turn bordered with a single incised line. On both sides, at the edges to the rear of the chin is a single punched hole. (Cf. similar bevors on examples cited above).

Associated “bellows" – visor with three peaks and roped and stepped sight of two ocularia divided at the medial line. Each peak is set off from the others with a thin, incised line, and each is pierced with a pair of rectangular breaths (except for the lowest which has only one) on each face. A tapering, conically-shafted lifting peg with oblate spheroid terminal is riveted to the right side of the visor below the first peak (Cf. Similar visors in Dufty, plt. XC(d); Sotheby & Co., lot 86; Bosson, cat .# 12. These last two with lower mounted lifting peg).

The helmet is comprehensively South German, circa 1530 – 50.
ProvenanceSir Guy F. Laking (England - pre-1907) Clarence H. Mackay (Roslyn, L.I.) Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc. Bought by the Armory from the estate of Clarence Mackay through Jacques Seligman and Co., Inc. (NYC) on 9 November 1940 (their A-48) Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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