IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 18274 accession number: HEN.M.26-1933 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Monday 19 April 2021 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: Comb morion, for wear by the bodyguard of the Electors of Saxony. Formed in one piece with a rounded crown that curves down at each side and rises to a high, roped, medial comb; and an integral brim that is turned down at each side and curves up to a point at the front and rear. The edge of the brim has a file-roped inward turn. The base of the crown is encircled by sixteen lining-rivets with caps of gilt-brass, cast and chiselled in relief as lions' masks carrying rings in their mouths. The rivets have square, internal washers. Located just below the central pair of lining-rivets on each side is a pair of externally-flush rivets that retain fragments of the leathers for the attachment of missing cheek-pieces. The base of the crown is encircled just below the level of the original lining-rivets with fourteen later lining-rivets having small, round heads and square, brass, internal washers. Two of the washers at the centre of the left side are missing. Attached at the nape by a pair of modern, round-headed brass rivets is a gilt brass plume-holder, cast and chiselled in high relief as a female herm. A later hole pierced through the comb a short distance above the plume-holder, probably served to tie up the plume. The helmet is decorated at its main edges and at the junctions of crown with the comb and the brim, with narrow bands of etched and gilt guilloche and running volutes. Each side of the comb is decorated at its centre with a circular cartouche formed of a narrow band of running, stylised foliage. The cartouches are etched and gilt on the left and right sides respectively with the arms of the Archmarshalcy of the Holy Roman Empire, per fess sable and argent, two swords gules in saltire overall, and of the Dukes of Saxony, barry of ten, or and sable, a crancelin vert in bend overall. The front, the rear and each side of the crown are decorated with a circular cartouche formed of a narrow band of etched and gilt arabesque scrolls. The central cartouche is linked to the front and rear cartouches, to the cartouche on the comb and to the centre of the base of the crown by vertical and horizontal bands of the same design. The cartouches on the left and right sides of the crown are etched and gilt, respectively, with representations of Mucius Scaevola before Porsena and Marcus Curtius leaping into the gulf. The gilding of the etched ornament shows some wear throughout. The surfaces intervening between the etched ornament may originally have been bright but were later blacked. The blackening is now extensively worn and the exposed surfaces have acquired a russet colour. title: comb morion NOTES ----- type: history note value: From the Saxon Royal Armoury at Dresden. The present helmet may have been one of a large number of its kind that were removed from the Armoury in the 1830s and sent to the State Opera House in Dresden to be used as theatrical properties. These were subsequently rescued by dealers and widely dispersed on the market. Mr James Stewart Henderson of 'Abbotsford', Downs Road, St Helen's Park, Hastings, Sussex. LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Applied Arts collection: J.S. Henderson creditline: J.S. Henderson Bequest STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/18274 SUBJECTS ------------------- arms of Archmarshalcy of the Holy Roman Empire arms of the Dukes of Saxony Mucius Scaevola before Porsena and Marcus Curtius leaping into the gulf lions foliage arms of Archmarshalcy of the Holy Roman Empire arms of the Dukes of Saxony Mucius Scaevola before Porsena and Marcus Curtius leaping into the gulf lions foliage TECHNIQUES ---------- formed in one piece with a rounded crown that curves down at each side and rises to a high, roped, medial comb; and an integral brim that is turned down at each side and curves up to a point at the front and rear; hammered, shaped, riveted, cast, with chiselled, file-roped, etched, gilded and voluted decoration hammered TECHNIQUES ---------- forming CATEGORIES ------ category: armour DATING ------ creation date: 1580 - 1580 creation date earliest: 1580 creation date latest: 1580 culture: 16th Century, Late CREATORS -------- maker: Unknown DIMENSIONS ---------- dimension: Depth units: cm value: 34 dimension: Height units: cm value: 28.8 dimension: Weight units: kg value: 1.6 dimension: Width units: cm value: 23.6 CITATIONS -------- Europäische Helme ---