CIRCA 1510

Details

A Rare German Close-Helmet, Attributed To The Seusenhofer Workshop, Innsbruck
Circa 1510
The rounded one-piece skull curving in and then out at the neck, fluted at the rear, encircled by a row of domed lining-rivets and pierced with eight pairs of holes for points securing the top of the lining (missing), fluted tail of three articulated plates, the upper two narrow and the other broad, of oblong shape, with a recessed border with a central pair of point-holes, pivoted bevor of one piece, shaped to the chin, and secured to the skull by a pivot-hook on the right, the bottom edge with a half-turn continuing that on the tail, and struck with a mark comprising two letters, and 'sparrow's beak' visor pivoted at the same points as the bevor, with stepped vision-slit with a central division, above a series of ventilation slits and holes continued down the right side, and with lifting peg on the right, the flutes and edges of the bevor and visor decorated with etched bands of running conventional foliage against a hatched ground and retaining traces of gilding (etching and gilding rubbed)
11in. (27.9cm.) high

Provenance

Claude Falkiner, 1954

Literature

Hayward & Blair, p. 80 , fig. 2

Exhibited

Art of the Armourer, cat. no. 32

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This is an example of a very characteristic type of Innsbruck helmet of which a number of examples exist, for example at Churburg (inv. nos. 73, 91). The etching is by the same hand as that on two pieces attributed to Konrad Seusenhofer in the Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer, Vienna: the armour (inv. no. A244), dated 1511, of Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, Prince Bishop of Salzburg, and a helmet of the same period (inv. no. A295). The mark, on which the letters are possibly 'IP' or 'LP', is unidentified
See Innsbruck Exhibition, cat. nos. 71, 83

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