Close helmet: HEN.M.73-1933

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

• Close helmet

Categories

• Armour

Description

Close helmet, for heavy cavalry use, later modified for use in the annual Giuoco del Ponte in Pisa. Formed of a skull with a bevor and barred face-defence attached to it by common pivots, and a single gorget-plate front and rear. The rounded, one-piece skull rises to a moderately high medial comb, decorated with file-roping at its crest. It is repaired at the brow and at each side with large riveted internal patches. Attached by a pair of round-headed rivets at its nape is a slightly tapering, tubular plume-holder with integral arms. The pivots that secure the bevor and face-defence to each side of the skull take the form of crude, low-domed rivets with large, circular external washers. The bevor is weakly shaped to the point of the chin and is repaired with a riveted internal patch at the centre of its U-shaped face-opening which has been cut at its upper end, removing a file-roped inward turn still surviving at its lower end. It is also repaired with riveted internal patches at its pivot-holes. Its lower rear corners have been cu t to allow it to fit the skull with which it is clearly associated. The later face-defence is formed of a simple frame to which vertical bars of a rounded section have been riveted by their spatulate upper and lower ends. A pierced D-shaped stud riveted at each side of the chin of the face-opening is engaged by a long, flat swivel-hook riveted at each side of the bevor. The flanged lower edges of the skull and the bevor are each fitted with a single short gorget-plate. The front gorget-plate is of crude make and clearly a later association. The lower edges of the gorget-plates have plain inward turns. That of the rear gorget-plates has a file-roped inward turn. The skull is decorated to either side of its comb with two groups of triple incised lines. Similar decoration borders the upper edge of the rear gorget-plate. The rear and upper edges of the bevor are decorated with pairs of incised lines.

Notes

History note: Mr James Stewart Henderson of 'Abbotsford', Downs Road, St Helen's Park, Hastings, Sussex.

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1933-03-16) by Henderson, James Stewart

Dating

16th Century-17th Century#
Circa 1590 - 1600

Note

The helmet has suffered much damage. It is bright with a fairly heavy pitting and patination overall.