AN ETCHED AND GILT CLOSE-HELMET

NORTH ITALIAN, LATE 16TH CENTURY

Details

AN ETCHED AND GILT CLOSE-HELMET
NORTH ITALIAN, LATE 16TH CENTURY
With one-piece skull with roped comb, visor, prow-shaped upper-bevor and lower-bevor shaped to the chin, all pivoting at the same points, and gorget-plates front and rear of two plates each, the whole with later etched and gilt bands involving classical warriors surrounded by scrollwork and bordered by narrow roped bands, the comb with a larger vignette on each side involving a gilt classical figure (visor and lower gorget-plates later)
13.1/2 in. (34 cm.) high

Provenance

Prince Peter Soltykoff (1804-1889), Paris.
Sold Hotel Drouot (M^eBonnefans de Lavialle), 18-22 April 1854, probably lot 129 or 130.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; sold Christie's London, 22-23 November 1960, lot 138 (140 gns.).

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Lot Essay

Prince Peter Soltykoff was the grandson of Count, later Prince, Nicolas Soltykoff, president of the Council of Ministers of Tsar Alexander I. He came to Paris in 1840 where he assembled a vast collection of medieval treasures, which he housed in two hotels built specifically for the purpose. The Soltykoff Collection of medieval art was the most celebrated private collection of its kind and comprised armour, glass, enamels, watches, ivories, manuscripts and other pieces. Prince Peter Soltykoff’s vast collection of medieval objects was disposed of in several sales in Paris in 1854 (when this helmet was sold), 1861 (where the entire collection sale of Oriental Arms and Armour was cancelled and purchased en bloc by Napoleon III), 1879 and after his death in 1889.

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