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Pot helmet: HEN.M.102-1933

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 31 (Armoury)

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Pot helmet, for use by an harquebusier. Formed of a skull, a pivoted peak with triple-bar face-defence, a neck-defence of two lames, and a pair of pendant cheek-pieces. The hemispherical skull is formed in two halves joined by a turn to the left along a low medial comb. The moderately broad, slightly downturned and obtusely-pointed peak is fitted on its underside with a face-defence formed of three bars of square section that are joined together in a forward-projecting scroll under the chin. The neck-defence is formed of two lames of which the longer upper one is embossed to simulate three lames. The cheek-pieces, which are now detached, have curved front and rear edges that converge towards their lower end where they are fitted with leather loops forming the ends of the lining-bands. The skull and neck-defence retain fragments of a fabric lining-band. The main edges of the helmet have plain inward turns accompanied, in the case of the peak and the neck-defence, by recessed borders.

Notes

History note: A detached wooden tag states that the helmet was acquired from the Tower of London Armoury, 1926. Mr James Stewart Henderson of 'Abbotsford', Downs Road, St Helen's Park, Hastings, Sussex.

Legal notes

J.S. Henderson Bequest

Measurements and weight

Depth: 33.5 cm
Height: 31.2 cm
Weight: 1.98 kg
Width: 23.2 cm

Place(s) associated

  • London ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

17th Century, Mid#
Production date: circa AD 1640

Note

English, probably London

The helmet is painted black over heavy pitting.

This type of helmet was used by horsemen armed with short firearms called harquebusiers and was very common during the British Civil Wars of the 1640s. The ‘tail’ at the rear has also given rise to the name ‘lobster-tail pot’. It would originally have had cheekpieces on either side from which a ribbon or lace would have secured it to the head.

Components of the work

Lining-bands composed of cloth
Loops composed of leather
Borders
Neck-defence
Parts

Materials used in production

Steel

Techniques used in production

Hammered : Formed of a skull, a pivoted peak with triple-bar face-defence, a neck-defence of two lames, and a pair of pendant cheek-pieces; hammered, shaped, riveted, with embossed neck-defence and recessed borders
Painting
Formed

Identification numbers

Accession number: HEN.M.102-1933
Primary reference Number: 18556
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 19 April 2021 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Pot helmet" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/18556 Accessed: 2024-03-28 19:38:20

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/18556 |title=Pot helmet |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-28 19:38:20|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-18556

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