CIRCA 1500-10

Details

A Rare Italian Sallet
Circa 1500-10
Of characteristic sou'wester form, with rounded one-piece skull with low medial ridge flanked by shallow flutes, and single riveted tail- and brow-plates meeting at the sides, the tail-plate pointed and the brow-plate with very shallow cusps along the upper edge curving up to a central point, the bottom edge turned inwards below an encircling rib
8¼in. (20.9cm.) high

Provenance

Graf Erbach zu Erbach, Schloß Erbach, Odenwald, Germany, Galerie Fischer, Luzern, 6 September 1932, lot 38
W.R Hearst, St. Donat's Castle, Glamorganshire, whence it was purchased directly by R.T. Gwynn in 1953

Literature

Müller-Hickler, plate XVII, 3
Beard, p. 132 , fig. XII
Blair 1958, fig. 109
Hayward, pp. 39-40, fig. VI
Boccia 1982, p. 32, fig. 170

Exhibited

Art of the Armourer, cat. no. 31

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This is an example of a type of sallet well known from contemporary illustrations, but of which few are known to survive, among them helmets in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (inv. nos. 30 3000 & 3001), the Royal Armouries, Leeds (inv. no. IV. 424), and the Wallace Collection (inv. no. A73). Boccia 1982 (p. 32) ascribes the Gwynn helmet to circa 1480-90, but the style of the fluting suggests that it dates from within the 16th century

See Hermitage, plate VI, B & C
Wallace Collection (inv. no. A73)
Tower Armouries 1968, plate LXXVII
See also lot 19

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