GERMAN CLOSE-HELMET OF 'MAXIMILIAN' TYPE FOR THE FIELD
CIRCA 1520-30, PROBABLY NUREMBERG
Auction: Day Two | Thurs 4th Sept at 10am | Lots 403 to 727
Description
of steel, with rounded one piece skull rising to a roped comb and with blackened flutes over both sides forming raised bright bands each with incised line borders, pierced with a pair of small holes for lining laces on both sides, and around the back of the neck with dome-headed lining rivets, later tubular plume-holder, rear neck-guard of two articulated plates en suite with the skull (lower one replaced), the bevor and 'bellows' visor pivoting at the same points (pivot bolts replaced) on each side, the former shaped to the chin and throat, and with turned and roped inner border, the lower edge on the right side struck with an indistinct mark, the latter with bevelled borders, pierced with horizontal vision slits above roping and with pairs of ventilation slots, all between pairs of narrow incised lines, and with replacement lifting-peg on the right, the lower edges with recessed turned and roped borders
Dimensions
30cm high
Provenance
Bonhams, London, Knightsbridge, Antique Arms and Armour Including the S. James Gooding Collection, 13th-22nd May 2024, lot 163, Sold for £7,500 (incl. premium)
Footnote
Note: For a close-helmet of similar form in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see Stuart W. Pyhrr, European Helmets, 1450-1650, Treasures from the Reserve Collection, 2000, p. 18, fig. 24 (inv. no. 14. 25. 549); and another in the Wallace Collection (inv. no. A160)