Lot 2
2
A GREEK BRONZE ILLYRIAN HELMET
A GREEK BRONZE ILLYRIAN HELMET
A GREEK BRONZE ILLYRIAN HELMET
2 More
A GREEK BRONZE ILLYRIAN HELMET
5 More
A GREEK BRONZE ILLYRIAN HELMET

LATE ARCHAIC TO EARLY CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA 500-420 B.C.

Details
A GREEK BRONZE ILLYRIAN HELMET
LATE ARCHAIC TO EARLY CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA 500-420 B.C.
9 ½ in. (24.1 cm.) high
Provenance
with Frank Sternberg AG, Zurich.
with Antiqua, Woodland Hills, California, acquired from the above, 1998.
with Frederick Schultz, New York, acquired from the above, 2001.
Private Collection, U.S., acquired from the above, 2001.
Property from an American Collection; Antiquities, Christie's, New York, 4 June 2008, lot 173.
Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above.
Antiken der Sammlung Axel Guttmann und aus anderem Besitz, Hermann Historica, Munich, 13 October 2010, lot 2021.
Christian Levett, London, acquired from the above on behalf of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art.
Literature
R. Hixenbaugh, Ancient Greek Helmets: A Complete Guide and Catalog, New York, 2019, p. 319, no. I311.
Exhibited
Mougins Museum of Classical Art, 2011-2023 (Inv. no. MMoCA585).

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Hannah Fox Solomon
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Lot Essay

This elegant helmet is formed of hammered sheet with a wide flaring neck-guard. It is ornamented with two raised parallel ridges running across the crown with a rivet above the forehead and a partially-preserved one at the back for the attachment of a separately-made crest. Between the ridges are three incised lines that terminate in a floral motif at the frontal rivet. Along the perimeter of the helmet are small circular incisions, which Hixenbaugh (op. cit.) refers to as a “pseudo-rivet.” Above the brow are incised tongues.

According to Hixenbaugh (op. cit., p. 134), this helmet belongs to a grouping which “appears to be the Classical zenith of the Illyrian form. There is a clear uniformity of design, proportion, and craftsmanship across dozens of extant helmets, suggesting that their manufacture lies in a single workshop in a major city with only few periphery copies and adaptations.” For a similar example formerly in the Axel Guttmann collection, see pl. XLIV in Die Ritter: Burgenländische Landesausstellung 1990.

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