Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria - Thomas Del Mar

240
A FINE AND RARE GERMAN ETCHED, BLUED AND GILT
COMB MORION OF THE TRABANTENLEIBGARDE OF THE
PRINCE ELECTORS OF SAXONY, NUREMBERG, CIRCA
1580
with tall skull formed in one piece and rising to a roped
comb, the base encircled with a row of fifteen gilt-brass
lion masks over lining-rivets, each with a ring in its mouth
(one ring missing, one boss an early replacement), narrow
brim rising to a point at the front and rear, decorated at its
edges with a roped inward turn (the right side showing two
short cracks), struck with Nuremberg mark and a small
serial mark at the front (the points each with a small hole,
plume-holder missing), the skull decorated with etched and
gilt bands of interlaced foliate scrollwork encircling the
figure of Mutius Scaevola before Porsena on one side and
Marcus Curtius leaping into the gulf on the other, the comb
with further etched and gilt bands of running foliage and a
central-cabled medallion framing, on the respective faces,
the arms of the Dukes of Saxony and the Archmarshallship
of the Holy Roman Empire, the brim decorated with etched
and gilt bands of running scrolls, and retaining much
original gilding and early blued finish throughout (the
bluing largely oxidised)
30cm; 11Nin high
Provenance
The Saxon Electoral Armoury, Dresden
Rutherford Stuyvesant
Important Austrian Art, sold Christie’s London, 1993, lot
number 113
Literature
The Arms and Armour Collection of Rutherford
Stuyevesant, 1914, cat. No. 26.
This helmet belongs to a distinctive group which was first
made for the Trabantenleibgarde of the Elector August I of
Saxony (1553-86) and continued to be used, and possibly
added to, in the time of his successors Christian I (1586-91)
and Christian II (1601-11). Originally this would have
matched the black doublets and yellow trunk hoses of the
uniform of the guards. A large number of helmets from
this group, which may have included the present example,
were removed from the Electoral armoury in the 1830s and
sent to the State Opera House in Dresden for theatrical use,
many of which were seen there by Bashford Dean in 1912.
See H. Nickel 1989, pp.117-21 and I. Eaves 2002, pp. 149-
150.
£15000-20000
110