LATE 16TH CENTURY

Details

An English Close-Helmet
Late 16th Century
Of bright steel, with heavy well-formed one-piece skull rising to a prominent roped comb (patched hole, probably from a funerary crest-spike) with conical iron plume-holder at the base with a pierced lug above, the latter presumably for securing the plume, visor with centrally divided one-piece stepped sight, prow-shaped upper-bevor with concave profile and circular breaths on the right, lower-bevor shaped to the chin, extra inner visor (a 17th Century working addition) of five flat bars each with embossed central rib, made from a single plate, all pivoted at the same points on the skull, the visor and bevors secured to each other by spring catches on the right, the inner visor secured to the lower-bevor by a spring catch on the left, and two gorget-plates at the front and rear respectively (both bottom plates later replacements), the neck and borders engraved with pairs of lines, the top of the upper-bevor and the bottom edge of the gorget-plates also with recessed lightly roped borders, the rivets with brass heads throughout (all probably later, the surface rust pitted throughout, minor old repairs, visor support missing)
12in. (30.4cm.) high

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

This is a high-quality example of the type of working (as opposed to funerary) helmet of the kind most commonly found with funeral achievements in English churches. The type is also frequently represented over coats-of-arms carved on English tombs of the late 16th and early 17th Centuries. They must have been produced by members of the Armourers' Company in London, which was the main centre of the armourer's craft in England. By the period when the present helmet was made there were strong links between the Company and the Royal Almain Armoury at Greenwich, which are probably reflected in the concave profile of its upper-bevor and the engraved double lines bordering the plates

See F.H. Cripps-Day, 'On Armour Preserved in English Churches' in G.F. Laking, A Record of European Armour and Arms, V, 1922, pp. 151-273, passim

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