Lot 79
79
A RARE ENGLISH ARMOUR FOR AN OFFICER OF PIKEMAN
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A RARE ENGLISH ARMOUR FOR AN OFFICER OF PIKEMAN

CIRCA 1625, POSSIBLY GREENWICH

Details
A RARE ENGLISH ARMOUR FOR AN OFFICER OF PIKEMAN
circa 1625, possibly Greenwich
Of russet steel, characteristically unmarked, comprising pot helmet of harquebusier type with two-piece skull joined by a narrow low comb rising to a low point in the middle (incomplete, comprehensively damaged), outer gorget plate (the inner missing), back-plate with the upper and lower edges each coming to a low point in the middle, breast-plate drawn-down to a very narrow point and with strongly flanged base carrying a pair of large overlapping tassets of one-piece construction, and the latter each retaining the lower halves of a pair of fretted brass hasps (the shoulder-and waist-straps and the locking-hooks all missing), finely decorated throughout with an embossed pattern of four narrow terraced panels punctuated by long chevrons in the manner of contemporary 'flame stitch' polychrome fabrics, the embossed pattern heightened with both single and double incised lines, a single line embossed about the borders and dividing two rows of domed brass rivets, the gorget and tassets each with subsidiary studded ornament involving pendant groups of concentric circles on the tassets, and the edges finished with plain turns throughout (the rivet heads and hasps previously gilt).
Special notice
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Lot Essay

See Thom Richardson, The London Armourers of the 17th Century, Royal Armouries monograph 7, 2004, pp. 8-10

An armour decorated in a very closely comparable style is in Warwick Castle. Further examples are in the Royal Armouries Collection, Leeds (II.112), together with another there on loan from the Dymoke estates; the Fitzwilliam Musem, Cambridge (HEN.M22) and the Stibbert Collection, Florence (the latter example with maker's mark of Gaven Helm and John Slator, active 1604-26).

The present armour is made unusual in the type of (evidently homogeneous) helmet used in preference to the standard broad-brimmed pot. A closely comparable harquebusier helmet is also in the Fitzwilliam Museum (HEN.m.95-1933), with a suggested date of circa 1680 and tentative Dutch attribution.

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