Thomas Del Mar - Arms & Armour

265
A FINELY CONSTRUCTED MINIATURE FIELD ARMOUR IN
THE GERMAN STYLE OF CIRCA 1580, LATE 19TH
CENTURY/EARLY 20TH CENTURY
comprising close helmet with roped comb, visor with a pair
of vision slits, bevor with three circular arrangements of
breathes on the left and lower bevor retained by a press
stud, gorget of a pair of articulated lames front and back,
breast and backplate, the former with medial ridge and
carrying a skirt of two lames, a pair of tassets each of five
lames, full arm defences, fingered gauntlets, full leg
defences with winged poleyns, articulated sabatons, and a
single pointed besagew, the principle lames decorated with
central notches, and with recessed borders and roped turns
throughout: on a wooden stand, complete with a two-hand
sword in contemporary style
76.2cm; 30in high
Inv. no. A204.
A strikingly similar miniature armour formerly in the
Renwick Collection was sold Sotheby & Co., 21st May 1973,
lot 32. It would appear that they are both based on an
armour in the former Imperial Collection in Vienna.
£8000-10000
266
A ‘FROG-MOUTHED’ JOUSTING HELM IN 15TH CENTURY
ENGLISH STYLE, 19TH CENTURY
formed of a low medially-ridged crown-plate sloping
forward to the upper edge of a broad V-shaped vision-slit,
projecting downwards at its rear as a narrow ‘tail-piece’,
and fitted at its apex with an oval reinforcing-plate and
vertical spike for the attachment of a funerary crest, a front
plate sloping forward to the inward-turned lower edge of
the vision-slit, and a pair of rear plates disposed to either
side of the ‘tail-piece’, the plates joined by round-headed
rivets, the lower edge of the helm flanged outwards and
pierced with pairs of stitch-holes for the attachment of a
lining (extensively corroded and patched, and painted black
overall)
Inv. no. A063.
The helmet appears to have been inspired by a distinctive
group of jousting helms of the first half of the 15th century
preserved as parts of funerary achievements in English
churches. See J. G. Mann 1933, pp. 152-4, and T.
Richardson 1996, pp. 68-72). These include an example
now in the Wallace Collection, London, Cat. No. A186, well
known to amateurs d’armes from the early 19th century
when it formed a part of the collection of Sir Samuel Rush
Meyrick of Goodrich Court, Herefordshire. The helm
catalogued here is likely to have been made to the order of
the celebrated 19th century antique arms dealer Samuel
Luke Pratt of Bond Street, London who was the chief
provider of both genuine and fake armour to English
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collectors at the time of the Gothic Revival. See G. F. Laking
1922, pp. 13-30, and Karen N. Watts.
£750-1000
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