16TH/17TH CENTURY, PROBABLY ENGLISH

Details

A Composite Close-Helmet
16th/17th Century, probably English
Comprising slightly ovoidal two-piece skull with low roped comb pierced at the top for a funerary crest-spike and slotted lower down, probably for the attachment of a mounting, visor with centrally divided horizontal sight, and pierced for a lifting-peg (missing) on the right side, prow-shaped upper-bevor, slightly concave in profile, pierced on the right side with numerous small cruciform-shaped breaths, the upper and lower edges respectively cut to receive a lifting peg and notched for a forked support, and lower-bevor shaped to the chin with turned and roped upper edge, the visor and upper- and lower-bevors pivoted at the same points on either side, the main edges of the visor and upper-bevor bordered by triple incised lines, and the visor with traces of painted funerary decoration (gorget-plates missing, minor damage and repairs, the surface rust pitted)
9½in. (24.2cm.) high

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The piercing in the comb for a funerary crest-spike, and the traces of funerary painting on the surface indicate that this helmet was once suspended over a funerary monument in an English church. It was made up for funerary use from pieces of three different helmets, the late 16th Century visor and upper-bevor being from the same one

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