EARLY 16TH CENTURY
Details
A Rare English Close-Helmet
Early 16th Century
Of bright steel, with heavy one-piece skull with keel-shaped comb, rear piercing for a roundel (missing) and flange for a gorget-plate (missing), deep cusped brow-reinforce originally riveted in place (rivets missing), visor and bevor pivoted at the same points, the former of so-called 'sparrow's' beak form with stepped vision-slit, small circular breaths and lifting-peg, the bevor shaped to the chin and with a narrow half-turn along the edge of the face-opening, the lower edge flanged for a narrow front gorget-plate, its edge similarly turned and with a recessed border, and unusual reinforcing-bevor riveted to the main bevor (some internal patching throughout)
10¾in. (27.4cm.) high
Many helmets of this general kind are associated with funerary achievements in English churches. There is good reason, therefore, for regarding them as of English origin. See Laking, II, pp. 91-94
Early 16th Century
Of bright steel, with heavy one-piece skull with keel-shaped comb, rear piercing for a roundel (missing) and flange for a gorget-plate (missing), deep cusped brow-reinforce originally riveted in place (rivets missing), visor and bevor pivoted at the same points, the former of so-called 'sparrow's' beak form with stepped vision-slit, small circular breaths and lifting-peg, the bevor shaped to the chin and with a narrow half-turn along the edge of the face-opening, the lower edge flanged for a narrow front gorget-plate, its edge similarly turned and with a recessed border, and unusual reinforcing-bevor riveted to the main bevor (some internal patching throughout)
10¾in. (27.4cm.) high
Many helmets of this general kind are associated with funerary achievements in English churches. There is good reason, therefore, for regarding them as of English origin. See Laking, II, pp. 91-94
Provenance
Sir Archibald Lamb, Christie's, 15 May 1922, Lot 64
W.H. Fenton
Raymond Bartell
R.T. Gwynn
W.H. Fenton
Raymond Bartell
R.T. Gwynn
Literature
F.H. Cripps-Day, A Record of Armour Sales 1881-1924, p. 250, fig. 191
Further details
See front cover illustration