Lot Essay
This panoply includes a Chalcidian helmet, the breast-plate from an anatomical cuirass, a belt and a pair of ankle-guards. The helmet has a carinated arch across the forehead, openings for the ears, a slightly-flaring neck-guard and hinged, forward-curving cheek-guards. A plate supporting a ring is riveted to the crown. The breast-plate features highly-stylized musculature, with perforations along the edges likely for attachment of a lining and the remains of fittings by which it was once joined to the now-missing side- and back-plates. The broad belt is likewise perforated along the edges, with the characteristic fittings with stylized palmettes and zoomorphic hooks. The ankle-guards are each fabricated from a hammered leaf-shaped sheet, with carinated ridges along their lengths.
For a similar helmet, found at Ruvo, Apulia, see no. 2002 in E. Babelon and J.-A. Blanchel, Catalogue des Bronzes Antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale. For a complete cuirass, see no. 243 in J. Chamay, The Art of the Italic Peoples from 3000 to 300 B.C.; and for a related belt, see pl. 1.1 in M. Suano, Sabellian-Samnite Bronze Belts in the British Museum.
For a similar helmet, found at Ruvo, Apulia, see no. 2002 in E. Babelon and J.-A. Blanchel, Catalogue des Bronzes Antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale. For a complete cuirass, see no. 243 in J. Chamay, The Art of the Italic Peoples from 3000 to 300 B.C.; and for a related belt, see pl. 1.1 in M. Suano, Sabellian-Samnite Bronze Belts in the British Museum.