Thomas Del Mar - Arms & Armour

286
A RARE SOUTH GERMAN CLOSE HELMET FOR THE
TOURNEY, IN THE MANNER OF WOLFGANG
GROSSCHEDEL OF LANDSHUT, CIRCA 1550-5
of notable weight, formed of a rounded skull rising to a
high roped medial comb (bruised and cracked towards the
rear), pierced at the rear of the neck with four small rivetholes
for the attachment of a missing plume-holder and to
either side of it with four lace-holes, two of those at the
right retaining their brass eyelets, visor, upper bevor and
bevor attached by later common pivots with large domed
heads, the visor with a prominent step beneath its single
broad vision-slit and a spring-catch at the right side
operated by a later lifting-peg with baluster-shaped
terminal, prow-shaped upper bevor pierced at its left side
with twenty small circular ventilation holes arranged in four
rows and at the right side with eight diagonal ventilationslots,
each expanded at its centre, the right side further
pierced with a threaded hole for the attachment of a
reinforce and fitted with a sliding spring-catch, the bevor
(with riveted patch at right of face-opening) pierced at each
side of the neck with seven circular ventilation-holes in
rosette formation, the central one of the right group
occupied by the brass-capped pivot of a sturdy forked
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visor-prop, the right of the neck further fitted with a brass
swivel-hook to secure the push-button operated springcatch
issuing forward from the skull, the lower edges of the
skull flanged outwards to receive missing gorget-plates, the
front and left of the helmet showing numerous cuts from a
rebated sword (pitted overall)
34.2cm; 13I in high
The helmet compares closely in both form and detail with
the contemporary products of the Landshut school of
armourers, in many cases marked by or documented as the
work of Wolfgang Grosschedel, recorded 1517-62, and his
son Franz Grosschedel, recorded 1555-78 (A. Von
Reitzenstein 1954, pp. 142-53). Analogous helmets of the
school can be recorded in the Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer,
Vienna, the Real Armeria, Madrid, the Musée de l’Armée,
Paris, the Musée Royale de l’Armée, Brussels, the Wallace
Collection, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, and the Stadt- und Kreismuseum, Landshut (G.
Spitzelberger 1975, pls 25, 31-2, 34-5, 38-9, 41& 47-52; J.
Mann 1960, pls IV & VI; and A. V. B. Norman 1986, pl 214).
Like the helmet under discussion, they are pieced at either
side of their bevors with circular groups of ventilation-holes.
£12000-18000
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