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Lot Essay
This helmet is unquestionably one of the finest examples to have survived from antiquity and the crown jewel of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art. When on loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 2018-2022, the Guttmann Mouse Helmet was described on its website as such: "In its complete state, this [is an] exceptionally rare and well-preserved Roman infantry helmet." The helmet is made even more impressive due to the rare, preserved iron dolabra included with this lot.
The helmet derives its modern name from a combination of its previous owner, Axel Guttmann, and the unusual decorative motif of two mice at back. Guttmann formed the largest private collection of ancient Greek and Roman arms and armour before the Mougins Museum of Classical Art was formed.
The helmet is of Weisenau/Niedermörmter type. It is composed of an iron dome with copper-alloy adjuncts, including broad bands crossing over the crown. At the top is a circular plate with a beaded edge, its raised center surmounted by a loop supporting a ring. Across the front is another broad band with beaded edges. Above is an intricate openwork box-shaped projecting brow ridge riveted in place. The openwork pattern consists primarily of a network of triangular cut-outs with rounded projections where they join at their peaks. At each side is an arching ear-guard, which leads to a flaring, sloping neck-guard at the back, attached to the dome by means of a conforming, ribbed plate. The neck-guard is trimmed with a folded band with beading along its inner edge, and is decorated with two L-shaped elements in the corners. Centered at the back of the neck-guard is a tabula ansata with domed handle-plates supporting a bail handle with acorn-form finials. Along its lower edge is a punched inscription naming the helmet’s owner, IVLI MANSVETI, probably to be read as Julius Mansuetus. Within the two triangular zones at the back of the dome is a small mouse and a segmented circular motif, perhaps a loaf of bread, all with stippled and incised details. The helmet was once fitted with hinged cheek-pieces, now missing.
The basic form of this helmet is ultimately derived from the earlier Celtic/Etruscan Montefortino type, which was introduced in the 4th century B.C. During the Roman Imperial period, iron would eventually replace bronze as the material of choice among the legions, often with reinforcing braces across the crown as seen on the helmet presented here. Iron provided superior strength and durability, ensuring better protection for the soldier. The various forms of Roman helmets were classified by H.R. Robinson in his 1975 study, The Armour of Imperial Rome; while the Guttmann Mouse helmet was not known to him, it would fall into his Imperial Italic H class. Our helmet is a variant of a type today called Weisenau, after the find-spot of a well-preserved example now in the Museum der Stadt Worms (see p. 228, no. 11 in P. Connolly, Greece and Rome at War). Closest in style to the present example is the bronze helmet found at Niedermörmter, now in Bonn at the Rheinisches Landesmusem, which has similar L-shaped elements and a handled tabula ansata on the neck-guard (see fig. 22 in M. Junkelmann, Römische Helme).
The meaning of the mouse motif has not been satisfactorily explained by scholars to date. Mice appear frequently in Roman art, sometimes in the form of small bronze figures, occasionally anthropomorphized (see, for example, the figure of a mouse blowing a trumpet, no. 100 in J.M.C. Toynbee, Animals in Roman Life and Art). A mosaic with a mouse approaching a walnut, now in the Vatican, recalls the arrangement on the helmet (Toynbee, op. cit., no. 101). While the scale of the circular object in relation to the mouse would be appropriate for a nut, its segmentation more closely recalls a Roman bread, the panis quadratus, known from examples excavated at Pompeii and elsewhere (see p. 140 in F. Coarelli, ed., Pompeii). Other depictions of a mouse with a bread are found on an engraved gem (see the impression in the Winckelmann-Museum, Stendal, Arachne Online Database no. 1230032) and on the gravestone of M. Gavio in the Terme Museum, Rome (Arachne Online Database no. 6210371). Junkelmann (op. cit., p. 144) suggests that the mouse had both positive and negative associations, and that they were connected with divination, the underworld, and that they were also ascribed demonic properties.
The iron dolabra, a type of pick-axe, associated with this helmet, has a hinged brass case for the blade. The case is ribbed along its length, has hooks at each end, and three leaf-shaped pendants suspended on lengths of wire upon which are threaded blue glass beads. For a similar example from the legionary camp at Vindonissa, modern Windisch, Switzerland, see pls. 249-250 in R. D’Amato and G. Sumner, Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier, From Marius to Commodus, 112 BC-AD 192.
The helmet derives its modern name from a combination of its previous owner, Axel Guttmann, and the unusual decorative motif of two mice at back. Guttmann formed the largest private collection of ancient Greek and Roman arms and armour before the Mougins Museum of Classical Art was formed.
The helmet is of Weisenau/Niedermörmter type. It is composed of an iron dome with copper-alloy adjuncts, including broad bands crossing over the crown. At the top is a circular plate with a beaded edge, its raised center surmounted by a loop supporting a ring. Across the front is another broad band with beaded edges. Above is an intricate openwork box-shaped projecting brow ridge riveted in place. The openwork pattern consists primarily of a network of triangular cut-outs with rounded projections where they join at their peaks. At each side is an arching ear-guard, which leads to a flaring, sloping neck-guard at the back, attached to the dome by means of a conforming, ribbed plate. The neck-guard is trimmed with a folded band with beading along its inner edge, and is decorated with two L-shaped elements in the corners. Centered at the back of the neck-guard is a tabula ansata with domed handle-plates supporting a bail handle with acorn-form finials. Along its lower edge is a punched inscription naming the helmet’s owner, IVLI MANSVETI, probably to be read as Julius Mansuetus. Within the two triangular zones at the back of the dome is a small mouse and a segmented circular motif, perhaps a loaf of bread, all with stippled and incised details. The helmet was once fitted with hinged cheek-pieces, now missing.
The basic form of this helmet is ultimately derived from the earlier Celtic/Etruscan Montefortino type, which was introduced in the 4th century B.C. During the Roman Imperial period, iron would eventually replace bronze as the material of choice among the legions, often with reinforcing braces across the crown as seen on the helmet presented here. Iron provided superior strength and durability, ensuring better protection for the soldier. The various forms of Roman helmets were classified by H.R. Robinson in his 1975 study, The Armour of Imperial Rome; while the Guttmann Mouse helmet was not known to him, it would fall into his Imperial Italic H class. Our helmet is a variant of a type today called Weisenau, after the find-spot of a well-preserved example now in the Museum der Stadt Worms (see p. 228, no. 11 in P. Connolly, Greece and Rome at War). Closest in style to the present example is the bronze helmet found at Niedermörmter, now in Bonn at the Rheinisches Landesmusem, which has similar L-shaped elements and a handled tabula ansata on the neck-guard (see fig. 22 in M. Junkelmann, Römische Helme).
The meaning of the mouse motif has not been satisfactorily explained by scholars to date. Mice appear frequently in Roman art, sometimes in the form of small bronze figures, occasionally anthropomorphized (see, for example, the figure of a mouse blowing a trumpet, no. 100 in J.M.C. Toynbee, Animals in Roman Life and Art). A mosaic with a mouse approaching a walnut, now in the Vatican, recalls the arrangement on the helmet (Toynbee, op. cit., no. 101). While the scale of the circular object in relation to the mouse would be appropriate for a nut, its segmentation more closely recalls a Roman bread, the panis quadratus, known from examples excavated at Pompeii and elsewhere (see p. 140 in F. Coarelli, ed., Pompeii). Other depictions of a mouse with a bread are found on an engraved gem (see the impression in the Winckelmann-Museum, Stendal, Arachne Online Database no. 1230032) and on the gravestone of M. Gavio in the Terme Museum, Rome (Arachne Online Database no. 6210371). Junkelmann (op. cit., p. 144) suggests that the mouse had both positive and negative associations, and that they were connected with divination, the underworld, and that they were also ascribed demonic properties.
The iron dolabra, a type of pick-axe, associated with this helmet, has a hinged brass case for the blade. The case is ribbed along its length, has hooks at each end, and three leaf-shaped pendants suspended on lengths of wire upon which are threaded blue glass beads. For a similar example from the legionary camp at Vindonissa, modern Windisch, Switzerland, see pls. 249-250 in R. D’Amato and G. Sumner, Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier, From Marius to Commodus, 112 BC-AD 192.