Art of Defence

Peter Finer 38–39 Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6DF T: +44 (0)20 7839 5666 F: +44 (0)20 7839 5777 E: gallery@peterfiner.com www.peterfiner.com

We number these museums and foundations among our valued clients:

GREAT BRITAIN The Victoria and Albert Museum, London The Aberdeen Art Gallery The Royal Armouries, Leeds The National Army Museum, London The Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh The Royal Scots Regimental Museum, Edinburgh

IRELAND The National Museum of Ireland, Dublin

EUROPE Deutsches Klingenmuseum, Solingen R端stkammer, Dresden Landesmuseum f端r Kultur- und Landesgeschichte, Schloss Tirol Stedelijke Musea Kortrijk

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Philadelphia Museum of Art The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Cleveland Museum of Art The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester

CANADA The Glenbow Museum, Calgary

ASIA Chi Mei Culture Foundation, Taiwan

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38–39 Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6DF T: +44 (0)20 7839 5666 F: +44 (0)20 7839 5777 E: gallery@peterfiner.com www.peterfiner.com

The Emperor Maximilian Visiting the Workshop of Konrad Seusenhofer in the Weisskunig by Hans Burgkmair, 1514–16. Seusenhofer was an Austrian armourer who worked for Emperor Maximilian I

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rms and armour were some of the most prized possessions in the medieval and renaissance world. The patrons of armourers were the wealthy nobles of the European courts who spent lavishly on armour – both for the sake of their safety on the field of battle and in tournaments, and to reflect their wealth and power.

Luxurious armour and weapons were exchanged as gifts at important court occasions, such as dynastic marriages, and to cement the signing of treaties. The great wealth of the ruling houses in Europe allowed many of them to amass huge collections of armour and this patronage gave further impetus to the development of the armourer’s art. In this world, where honour, courage and self-sacrifice were noble ideals and glory and the spoils of war were deemed worthy of pursuit, warriors were venerated – as they had been for over a thousand years.

The position of the armourer in European society was no less exalted than that of the warrior. Bashford Dean, the founding curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Arms and Armor described their status in his handbook to the collection: . . . the man who made [armour] was looked upon everywhere as an artist who belonged to an ancient and honourable guild. He had access at all times to courts and camps and his work was munificently rewarded. A great swordsmith, Serafino di Brescia, was accepted by such an art lover as Francis I as equal in rank with Titian. The Negroli were ennobled, fortune and fame came to the Colman family through the Austrian emperors, and the Imperial Maximilian is pictured in his workshop with his hand upon the shoulder of the master-armourer Seusenhofer.

In antiquity the armourer used bronze, the most effective form of protection readily available, which he cast and beat into individual plates and then into armour. Examples are the kardiophylax and helmet at the start of this catalogue.

The age of bronze was superseded by the age of iron. More readily available than bronze, iron was more difficult to process but used by the Romans to make plates of armour. In the Middle Ages iron coats of mail known as hauberks were used for defence. In time armour in Europe and western Asia would incorporate small plates of iron to better shield the wearer’s more vulnerable areas. Demand for better protection led to the replacement of mail by plate armour of iron and steel; by 1370, the full harness of plate armour, what the Victorians would later call a ‘suit of armour,’ had been developed.

When iron was improved and steel made by adding carbon from coal, the resulting refined metal could be made even harder by heating and cooling it. The master armourer could respond to the needs of his patrons as they faced ever more dangerous weapons by re-thinking defensive equipment, hoping to make the wearer invulnerable to the new weaponry. This is how armour evolved. The armourer was at the same time asked to make works of art – objects of great beauty that reflected the style of the day and the status of his patron. Catalogue no. 3, a fifteenth century turban helmet, is not only an astoundingly beautiful work of art but its twelve spiralling flutes an example of near-perfect geometrical design.

For more than a thousand years heavy cavalry had represented the principal form of attack in battle and their idolisation had led to the cult of chivalry in feudal Europe. Even during the Hundred Years War when the ascendancy of the English longbow caused knights to fight on foot it was still the armour-wearing classes who bore the brunt of the fighting. It was the invention, development and growing sophistication of firearms that ultimately undermined the armour maker. Maximilian I (1459 –1519), the Holy Roman Emperor who ruled over much of Europe, recognised that the knights’ era would soon end; as a would-be champion of the lost chivalric virtues he styled himself the ‘Last Knight.’

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Although knights were no longer the dominant force on the battlefield in the sixteenth century, there was still a need for heavy cavalry. Armour for the field, battle armour or ‘hosting’ armour, was still widely produced throughout the sixteenth century and continued in common use into the first half of the seventeenth century. Our Savoyard and cuirassier helmets, catalogue nos. 15 and 17, were worn by mounted soldiers. Generally speaking though, full armour ceased to be worn on the battlefield as a matter of course from about 1640.

Another area in which the armourers’ art flourished was that of the tournament. Chivalric games, in the form of the joust, the foot tourney and the mêlée, were how knights had traditionally trained for war from a young age.

Noblemen continued to participate in these sporting events long after they ceased to be a decisive force in the front line of battle. In the early tournament a nobleman would usually wear the same types of armour that he wore in battle. It was in the fourteenth century that tournament armours became distinct from armour made for war.

Tournament armour protected its wearer from a forceful strike with a lance or the impact of the blade of a sword, but only needed do so for the relatively short duration of a joust or mêlée. The armourer in constructing tournament armour sacrificed the mobility of the wearer for the safety offered by much thicker, heavier plates. Helmets for the tourney had fewer ventilation holes, but a wide variety of reinforcing plates might be added for specific events in the tournament. The German close helmet, no. 14, is an example for the tilt that was also undeniably used in the foot-tourney. The turn of the last century model that ends our catalogue provides a romantic impression of a figure on horseback in the joust.

All armour, either for battle or for tournament, had to fulfil two seemingly opposing requirements: to be light yet strong. A competent armourer had to not only be a skilled engineer and maker, but equally an artist who understood form and decoration. An armour and its many elements had to fit perfectly, be practical yet also be aesthetically pleasing. The gilt ‘Spanish’ morion in this catalogue was a work of art and a defence. Only a fraction of the arms and armour made has survived to the present day, and the vast majority of it is now in museums. It is not possible to overstate the rarity of these beautiful and historically significant artefacts.

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1 Villanovan kardiophylax, 7th century BC 2 Illyrian helmet, 5th century BC 3 Turban helmet, 15th century 4 Leg guard, late 15th century 5 Tournament shield, c. 1550 6 Closed burgonet, c. 1550 7 Vamplate, c. 1560 8 Burgonet, c. 1560–70 9 ‘Spanish’ morion, c. 1570 10 Close helmet for the field or tourney, c. 1580–90 11 Gilt ‘Spanish’ morion, c. 1580–90 12 Parade shield, c. 1580–90 13 Gilt close helmet for the field, c. 1580–90 14 Close helmet for the tilt, c. 1590 15 ‘Savoyard’ helmet, c. 1600–20 16 Papal Guard cuirass, c. 1623–44 17 Cuirassier helmet, c. 1630 18 Model equestrian armour by E. Granger, c. 1850 19 Model equestrian jousting armour, c. 1900

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VILLANOVAN KARDIOPHYLAX (HEART-PROTECTOR) NORTH WESTERN ITALY. SEVENTH CENTURY BC BRONZE. 9.5 in / 24 cm DIAMETER PROVENANCE: PRIVATE COLLECTION, USA

Villanovan culture was the earliest Iron Age civilization to inhabit Adriatic Etruria on the Italic peninsula – what is today Emilia Romagna and Tuscany. The Villanovans, ancestors of the Etruscans, were by the seventh century BC influenced by archaic Greece via their traders.

This Villanovan heart-protector depicts twelve horses in procession, stippled into the bronze between large embossed studs and concentric rings of triangles; a star pentagon between five large protruding palle (balls) decorates the raised central portion of the pectoral. The embossed studs probably mimicked those found on a Greek warrior’s shield. A ring attached to the kardiophylax’s reverse secured it to a harness of leather straps: a tomb painting from Cerveteri that shows an Etruscan warrior and dates to the sixth century BC demonstrates how the object hung across the torso.

Dr Michael Burns (in unpublished correspondence) suggests the decoration is reminiscent of that found in tombs in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, and he dates the protector here to the first half of the seventh century BC. At that time kardiophylakes would have been worn by warriors of elevated-rank, the object likely symbolic of that standing. The ornamental imagery certainly had ritual significance, but that exact meaning remains enigmatic.

Nevertheless, horses appear in Villanovan art, modelled in both clay and bronze, and remained an iconographic symbol of strength for the next thousand years.

Terracotta slab from Cerveteri with a figure of a warrior, © Museo di Cerveteri

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Illyrian Helmet GREEK. FIFTH CENTURY BC BRONZE. 9.25 x 7.5 in / 23.5 x 19 cm PROVENANCE: STALDER COLLECTION, LUCERNE; ACQUIRED FROM F. KUNG, LUCERNE, IN 1973

What we call an ‘Illyrian’ helmet is a purely Greek type which developed in the Peloponnese in the early seventh century BC. The modern day classification remains in use despite the fact that Illyria (in the western Balkans) was a locality barbaric to the Greeks.

The example here is a type III Illyrian helmet, distinguished by sides that arched around the wearer’s ears rather than enclosing them, as did both the earlier Illyrian and the Corinthian types (the helmets most frequently seen in depictions of hoplite warriors in ancient Greek art.) These improvements facilitated better hearing. Accentuated, elongated cheek pieces further distinguish the rarer Illyrian Type III from its predecessors, as do a jutting neck guard at the base of the skull.

The abandonment of a nasal guard afforded unobstructed vision and was another advancement. An Illyrian Type III example found at Olympia, Greece, and comparable with the present helmet is preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inventory number V.14972).

The skull of the present helmet is embossed with prominent ridges forming a double comb into which a horse-hair crest was fixed; staples attached the crest at either end of the comb. Remarkably, these survive on our example. The helmet is preserved in exceptional condition throughout with a striking and beautiful patina.

T R OY THESSALY T H EB E S AT H ENS ATTICA ARG OS MESSENIA SPAR TA LACONIA CO R I N T H

CARIA

CN OSSUS

Map of Ancient Greece, showing Argos and Sparta on the Peloponnese peninsula

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TURBAN HELMET, TIMURID, AQ-QOYUNLU OR SHIRVAN SHAHI DYNASTIES EASTERN ANATOLIAN. FIFTEENTH CENTURY STEEL AND SILVER. 8.5 x 9 in / 22 x 23.2 cm PROVENANCE: STRUCK WITH THE MARK OF THE IMPERIAL OTTOMAN ARSENAL; PROBABLY DISPERSED FROM THE ARSENAL OF HAGIA EIRENE, ISTANBUL,

BY ORDER OF THE SULTAN ABDÜL MECID I IN 1839–40

Helmets of so-called ‘turban’ type were previously thought to be Mamluk but are now known to have, for the most part, been made in Anatolia, what is today eastern Turkey and western Iran. Forged of one piece of steel with traces of silver damascene, this helmet demonstrates a remarkable level of symmetry and skill in its embossing. The intricate engraved decoration densely interlaces flowers and foliage with Arabic inscriptions in Thuluth characters. Thuluth is a script variety of Islamic calligraphy invented by the Persians in the eleventh century, though it continued to be used by the Ottomans in following centuries. Some of the oldest copies of the Qur’an were written in the same Thuluth script found on this helmet. In the band that encircles the later finial at the helmet’s peak is engraved the name: ALAMDAR AQTAR, the Standard Bearer Aqtar. This title and rank bear considerable significance in Islam.

The Byzantine church of Hagia Eirene, former Imperial Ottoman Arsenal

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The mark of the Imperial Ottoman arsenal found on our helmet

The flutes of the helmet are individually engraved panels that alternatively bear the honorific title king. The remaining panels’ small roundels show some of the ninety-nine names by which Muslims honour the different aspects of God. Three calligraphic quatrefoil cartouches punctuate the band around the helmet’s base, declaring: Our Glorious Lord, The Ruler, Sultan, The Greatest Khan. Two arches feature on the helmet above the wearer’s eyes.

The lower rim of the skull was shortened in the helmet’s working life, almost certainly for wear during its early Ottoman ownership; a row of small holes, another later modification for the attachment of mail, pierce the circumference of the helmet at its base.

The helmet is engraved with the ‘tamga of the Kayi,’ the mark of the Imperial Ottoman arsenal. Tamga means mark or seal; the Kayi were a Turkic tribe who had used the symbol, and from whom the Ottomans believed they were descended.

This mark was engraved onto trophies of war before they were placed into the Imperial Ottoman arsenals in Constantinople, today Istanbul. It is probable that our helmet was part of the booty of armour and weapons captured by the forces of the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I, in his victory over the Safavid Empire, at the battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and afterwards placed in the arsenal of Hagia Eirene.

Helmets in the Imperial Arsenal at Hagia Eirene, as photographed by Abdullah Freres, Istanbul, 1889 10

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LEG GUARD PROBABLY OTTOMAN. LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY STEEL AND SILVER. 17.1 x 7.5 in / 43.5 x 19 cm PROVENANCE: STRUCK WITH THE MARK OF THE IMPERIAL OTTOMAN ARSENAL; PROBABLY DISPERSED FROM THE ARSENAL OF HAGIA EIRENE, ISTANBUL,

BY ORDER OF THE SULTAN ABDÜL MECID I IN 1839–40

Leg guards of this very distinct type were intended to protect the outer surfaces of the lower legs of a mounted warrior; the central steel plate curved to fit the outer ankle-joint and calf. Qur’anic inscriptions decorate the finest examples, frequently, as here, overlaid in silver, and set in a framework of interlaced foliage and tendrils. Similar embellishment is found on turban helmets of the period (see catalogue no. 3). The engraved Arabic inscriptions on our guard, AL SULTAN, the king and AL MALIK, the glorious, expressed

The Tamga of the Kayi

piety and may have been thought to possess talismanic powers of protection.

Similar to our turban helmet, this guard bears the mark of the Imperial Ottoman arsenal.

Historically significant provenance is rarely so confirmed as by this Ottoman symbol, known as the ‘tamga of the Kayi,’ the mark added to armour that entered the arsenal.

Following the Ottoman capture of Constantinople, the Byzantine architectural jewel, the church of Saint Irene became a repository for plunder gained in the Ottoman campaigns against the Aq Qoyunlu Turkomans, the Persian Safavids and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and the Levant. In the nineteenth century the arsenal of Hagia Eirene was cleared of much of its armour and weapons by order of the Ottoman Sultan Abdül Mecid I, when a considerable number of these pieces first appeared on the art market.

A panoply that includes a pair of leg guards at top, in the Imperial Arsenal at Hagia Eirene, as photographed

by Abdullah Freres, Istanbul, 1889

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Pair of leg guards, Iranian, late fifteenth century, Steel, silver, gold, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (no. 36.25.457; 1990.229) ©MMA

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TOURNAMENT SHIELD FOR USE IN THE Huszarische Turnier SOUTH GERMAN. c. 1550 WOOD, HEMP-LINING, LEATHER AND PAINT. 33 x 23 in. / 84 x 58.5 cm PROVENANCE: SOTHEBY’S, LONDON, 15 MAY 1984, LOT 28

This type of shield is named flügeltartsche in German, wing-shield, for its unique shape. Its design originated in the taller versions used in combat by the Hungarian light cavalry, the hussars, warriors first recorded in fifteenth century medieval Hungary. Highly exotic and fast-moving, in regional dress and light armour, they were renowned throughout the Holy Roman Empire for their vigour and supreme horsemanship in combat.

Admiration for the hussars inspired Archduke Ferdinand II of the Tyrol (1529–95), a celebrated patron of armourers and chivalric champion, to hold a series of Huszarische or ‘Hungarian’ hussar tournaments. A tournament book, printed for the Archduke sometime after 1557 and now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, vividly illustrates scenes from these Huszarische Turnier (Hungarian tournaments) held in Prague, Pilsen and Vienna between the years 1548 and 1557. A plate from the manuscript shows Dietrich von Schwendi who participated in the 1557 Prague tournament; behind him rides his page carrying the knight’s lance and flügeltartsche.

Among the few surviving examples of shields similar to ours is the flügeltartsche carried by the Archduke himself in the tournaments; together with his complete Huszarische armour it is preserved in the former Imperial collection in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Other comparable examples are held in the von Kienbusch Collection in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the collection of the Counts von Trapp in Schloss Churburg in the Tyrol.

A plate from the Turnierbuch Erzherzog Ferdinands, folio 181, showing Dietrich von Schwendi and his page (KK 5134), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 14

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CLOSED BURGONET GERMAN. c. 1550 STEEL: 13 x 10 in / 33 x 25.4 cm PROVENANCE: COLLECTIONS OF THE DUKES OF BRUNSWICK, SCHLOSS MARIENBURG, GERMANY

This type of burgonet first appeared in about 1525 and continued to be made for a hundred years thereafter. Often referred to as closed burgonets, they are fitted with a hinged fall or falling buffe, instead of the visor and upper bevor of a close helmet.

A helmet comparable to ours, made in Nuremberg in about 1535 is found in the Wallace Collection. The falling buffe seen on both these helmets was an ingenious and practical advancement that allowed for the instantaneous removal of the lower face defence. This enabled the wearer to see or be heard more clearly, or to drink or gasp for air in the heat of battle. Once his needs were met, the spring-loaded mechanism of the buffe allowed it to easily and quickly be snapped back into place whereupon full protection of the face resumed with little inconvenience to the warrior.

This helmet was preserved in the ancestral collection of arms and armour in Schloss Marienburg, Germany, one of the seats of the Royal House of Hanover. In 1714 the Duke of Brunswick-LĂźneburg, George Louis of the House of Hanover, ascended to the throne of Great Britain as George I, and Hanover joined in a personal union with Great Britain which lasted until Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837.

Close helmet with falling buffe by Hans Ringler, Nuremberg, Germany, c. 1535, Wallace Collection, London Š The Wallace Collection 16

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VAMPLATE NORTHERN EUROPEAN. c. 1560 STEEL, BLUEING AND GOLD. 11 in / 28 cm DIAMETER PROVENANCE: COLLECTION OF JEAN-BAPTISTE-ANTOINE-MARCELIN, BARON DE MARBOT (1782–1854)

Vamplates first appeared on lances in the early fourteenth century, when a circular plate of metal was placed immediately above the hanste, or grip to protect the hand and arm from an enemy’s strike. Subtle differences distinguish vamplates designed for war from those for tournament: as may be seen in Botticelli’s painting Venus and Mars, the former were initially flat, whilst the later became larger and more conical in shape to better defend a competing knight.

Our vamplate, probably made for tournament, retains all of its original blued finish; the piece belonged in the nineteenth century to General Baron de Marbot (1782–1854), a soldier and author in Napoleonic France. A colonel of the Belgian light cavalry, Napoleon himself promoted Marbot to general on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. He wrote two books on the French army after Napoleon’s exile; General Bertrand, with the emperor on St Helena, recorded in his journal: In the evening, the Emperor handed me Marbot’s book… and said: ‘That is the best book I have read for four years. It is the one that has given me the greatest amount of pleasure.’

Napoleon was so gratified in fact that his will included: To Colonel Marbot … I urge him to continue writing for the defence of the glory of the French armies and to confound their detractors and apostates. One hundred thousand francs.

Marbot’s real fame, however, stems from his memoirs, written for his children and published posthumously in 1891. Mémoires du général baron de Marbot, widely read in France, was translated into English the following year such was its popularity.

Detail of Venus and Mars, c. 1485, Sandro Botticelli, NG915 © The National Gallery, London

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Portrait of Baron de Marbot, Colonel du 23e Chasseurs à Cheval, 1812, by Héliog Dujardin, engraved by Wittmann, as printed in Marbot’s memoirs, 1891

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BURGONET PROBABLY NUREMBERG. c. 1560–70 STEEL, PAINT. 12.2 x 8.6 in / 31 x 8.6 cm

Helmets of this type were intended for wear both with light cavalry armour and with foot armour which, in massed ranks, dominated the battlefields of central and north western Europe in the sixteenth century. The few historic arsenal collections that remain today in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, present much of their black-and-white armour as if ready for such battle at a moments’ notice. The most notable surviving arsenal, or zeughaus, is that of the Styrian capital of Graz in Austria, once a strategic bastion of the Holy Roman Empire against persistent Turkish incursion.

The blackened and white steel of this light, open-faced helmet makes a striking combination. It is a particularly well-made piece, almost certainly for an officer’s armour which would have been decorated to match our helmet.

The most arresting feature of this burgonet is its tall rear-swept crest, which runs down the middle of the skull and is known as a comb. Created from a single piece of metal, the tall scull of this helmet is an extraordinary work of craftsmanship. The armourer hammered thousands of blows to draw-out the comb to such a height; it served to diffuse the impact of a strike.

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‘SPANISH’ MORION BRESCIA OR MILAN. c. 1570 STEEL AND BRASS. 11 x 9 in / 28 x 23 cm

The morion is an open-faced helmet that came into widespread use throughout Europe in the sixteenth century, though morions are historically associated with armour of the Spanish Hapsburg Court, hence they are often called Spanish. Infantry and cavalry wore morions and the helmet is characterised by its high medial ridge with a pear-like stalk and curved brim that peaks at the front and rear.

The etched bands on our Italian helmet are filled with elaborate trophies of arms, musical instruments, scrolling foliage and heads of monstrous creatures; such imagery featured often in northern Italian decoration of the late cinquecento. Etching of this quality is rare and indicates the morion would have belonged to a figure of rank and substance.

The helmet’s left and right sides show two warriors in classical armour on contrasting granular grounds. The brim is patterned with scrolling tendrils and two horned demon masks, while its stalk finial emerges from an etched acanthus calyx, a Hellenistic motif. This fusion of classicized elements reflects a sixteenthcentury notion of the art of antiquity rather than the antique, but its revival in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries lies at the heart of Renaissance art.

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CLOSE HELMET FOR THE FIELD OR TOURNEY GERMAN, ALMOST CERTAINLY THE CITY OF AUGSBURG. c. 1580–90 STEEL AND BRASS. 14.4 x 8.3 in / 36.5 x 21 cm

The elegance and technical finesse of this helmet’s construction suggests it comes from Augsburg, and possibly the workshop of Anton Peffenhauser. Peffenhauser (c. 1545–1603) is considered the most significant German armourer of the latter part of the sixteenth century. Peffenhauser, likely working with goldsmiths, produced an extraordinary bas-relief armour for King Sebastian of Portugal, today preserved in the Real Armería, Madrid. Peffenhauser possessed a broad stylistic range; his workshop produced armour not only lavishly ornamented but also of lithe simplicity, such as our helmet. He made armours for both the Bavarian and the Saxon Electoral Courts, and a great number of these are today in museums.

Comparable Augsburg close helmets, for both field use and the Freiturnier, the free tourney, are preserved in the Wallace Collection, London (A45, A46 and A170), and there is a decorated example in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (no. 29.152.1). Our helmet too was made for the field, that is to say the battlefield, as well as for use in the Freiturnier, where a degree of peripheral vision was essential; it would have been practical in weight yet sufficiently protective.

The helmet would have originally belonged to a complete suit of armour, and its quality suggests this armour belonged to a person of high military rank.

Detail of an engraving executed in about 1600, reputedly showing Anton Peffenhauser; his armourer’s mark may be seen at bottom-centre.

Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin

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GILT ‘SPANISH’ MORION MILAN. c. 1580–90 STEEL, BRASS AND GOLD. 11 x 9 in / 28 x 23 cm

Though the infantry and some light cavalry wore morions on the battlefield, highly ornate Italian examples were also fashioned for parade use, especially in Spanish-controlled Milan, from where our helmet originates. These were created for the splendid armours of high-ranking noblemen and their armed retinues.

The motifs etched on our helmet were favoured by the distinguished Milanese armourer Pompeo della Cesa (active 1537–1610), to whom this helmet has been attributed, but similar designs are found on the armours of his leading contemporaries: specifically the master signed IFP and the master signed with the triple-towered castle device. An etched and gilt morion helmet with extremely similar decorative elements is also preserved in the Wallace Collection.

A morion, Milan, c. 1570–90, iron or steel and gold © The Wallace Collection, London

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PARADE SHIELD NORTHERN ITALY. c. 1580–90 STEEL. 22.8 in / 58 cm DIAMETER PROVENANCE: PRIVATE COLLECTION, FRANCE

The etched designs on the outside surface of this Italian shield create the illusion of embossed relief work, in imitation of this expensive practice for which the leading armour makers of Milan were famed in the sixteenth century.

The decoration as a whole is a type attributed by earlier modern scholars of armour to the north Italian city of Pisa, although it is now known to be a style of etching produced throughout the region.

While the use of a shield was limited by the late sixteenth century to heightening the magnificent appearance of its owner in parades, his armour – still used on the battlefield – would have been etched in a style that exactly matched his shield.

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GILT CLOSE HELMET FOR the FIELD MILAN. c. 1580–90 STEEL, BRASS AND GOLD. 12.2 x 10.6 in / 31 x 27 cm PROVENANCE: VISCOUNT COWDRAY, COWDRAY PARK, ENGLAND

In its present form this close helmet was intended for wear with a field armour – in battle. The original full armour, however, probably included various ‘exchange pieces.’ These were interchangeable parts that reinforced vulnerable areas and in doing so enabled the armour to also be used in the tournament. Armours with exchangeable parts were known as garnitures; because they required many separate elements these armours were extremely expensive to manufacture.

The prohibitive cost meant that our helmet and its associated armour was probably commissioned by royalty or a wealthy noble.

The etched decoration on our helmet is characteristic of the armourproducing cities of northern Italy, and the high quality of the drawing of the amour trophies, monsters, lion masks, harps, and amphorae on the helmet suggest it was produced in a Milanese workshop.

With the exception of the back two neck lames, which have both been skillfully restored, our helmet is in a remarkable state of preservation.

It retains much of the original mercury gilding and this provides a tantalizing idea of how striking the entire suit of armour, similarly embellished in gold, would have appeared on the battlefield.

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CLOSE HELMET FOR THE TILT GERMAN, PROBABLY AUGSBURG. c. 1590 STEEL. 12.6 x 10 in / 32 x 25.5 cm

Helmets of this type were among the last made for dedicated use in the tournaments constituted of jousts and foot tourneys only. By the early seventeenth century tournaments became theatrical re-enactments, in which armour was merely ornamental. The deep blade cuts, however, on our helmet leave no doubt that it was well-used in real tournament.

These marks show that in its working life the helmet formed part of a garniture of an armour used both for the tilt on horseback, armed with a lance, and for the foot tourney at the barriers, armed with swords, hammers, spears and pollaxes. The threaded hole just below the vision slit at the front of the helmet would have taken a bolt by which one of a wide variety of specifically shaped reinforcing plates would have been attached. One of these plates, for example, would have covered the pierced breaths on the left-hand side of the visor. These holes were a desirable means of ventilation when fighting on foot, but an undesirable weak point opposite a tilting lance-head.

The Royal Armouries, Leeds, hold a variety of German head-to-toe tilt armours from 1580–1600, with helmets very similar to ours.

Illustration from L’Instruction du Roy en l’exercice de monter à cheval, by Antoine de Pluvinel (1552 –1620), Private collection

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‘SAVOYARD’ HELMET PROBABLY ITALIAN. c. 1600–20 STEEL AND BRASS. 12.6 x 9.8 in / 32 x 25 cm PROVENANCE: BARON HANS DE SCHULTHESS (1885–1951), SCHLOSS AU, NEAR ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

Helmets of this type were worn by the cuirassiers of the heavy cavalry. Constructed of a heavy, shot-proof weight, they were for this reason often used in the escalade – the storming of a heavily fortified enemy position.

They are called Savoyard, in part, because it is believed that large numbers of this type, today in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, were taken as booty from the troops of Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy following his army’s unsuccessful assault on the Swiss city in 1602. Savoyard helmets are also referred to as Todenkopf, meaning ‘Death’s head’ in german, named so for the eerie, skull-like mask of their visor. Our example is a rare type: the hinged cheek pieces which fasten at the chin are reminiscent of the ‘armet’ type of close helmet, worn in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

This helmet belonged to Baron Hans de Schulthess (1885–1951), a successful Swiss banker and prominent arms and armour enthusiast at the turn of the last century who amassed a notable collection.

Savoyard helmets show various expressions: almond or round eyes, mouths open, closed or even smiling as may be seen here; perforated moustaches or prominent noses decorate others. Comparable helmets may be seen in the large group in the Musée d’Arte et d’Histoire, Geneva and in the Museo Stibbert, Florence.

A Savoyard helmet in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva Inv. no. C876 © MAH

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PAPAL GUARD CUIRASS BRESCIA. c. 1623–44 STEEL, BLUEING AND GOLD. 16 x 14 in / 40.5 x 35.5 cm STRUCK WITH THE BARBERINI MARK ON THE BACKPLATE PROVENANCE: THE PONTIFICAL ARMY AND ITS ARSENAL, IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Pope Julius II founded the Papal Guard in 1505, and still today they perform ceremonial and state duties in the Vatican City. The Swiss Guard remains responsible for the safety of the Pope; often called “the world’s smallest army,” they serve as personal escorts to the pontiff and as watchmen in Vatican City and at the pontifical villa of Castel Gandolfo.

The distinguishing grotesque mask and arabesques engraved onto the blued steel of this cuirass characterise a series of decorated half-armours made for the Papal Swiss guard in the first half of the seventeenth century. The crowned arms of the Barberini family – three bees on a heater-shaped shield – appear in a stamped mark on the backplate of our cuirass. The presence of this mark is historically significant: it echoes the armour’s connection to the Papal State and confirms the period in which this cuirass was worn.

Detail, Maffeo Barberini, Pope Urban VIII, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1632, marble © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

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From an Italian noble family, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini was elected pope in August 1623 and took the name Urban VIII. He was a renowned patron of the arts, painted by Caravaggio and sculpted by Bernini. While the engraved decoration on this series of cuirasses is undoubtedly Brescian, the steel plates themselves hail from disparate northern Italian sources, including the city of Brescia. Consequently, it is thought that the newly-elected Barberini Pope ordered the subsequent ‘beautification’ of his sentinels’ armour, engraving and gilding this superb design onto an existing stock of Swiss Guard cuirasses already in the Vatican arsenal, perhaps to lavishly celebrate his new papacy.

Urban VIII was the last pope to attempt to expand the papal territories by force of arms. Under his command, and that of his nephew, Taddeo Barberini, the papal army was expanded and actively used to enforce the extensive political ambitions and vast material gains of the Barberini family. Upon the death of Urban VIII in 1644 Taddeo Barberini fled into exile, where he remained until his own death three years later. Our cuirass therefore dates to before 1644.

Most surviving Papal Guard armour dating from the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is now dispersed internationally, the betterpreserved examples, such as this one, mostly to museums. A halfarmour closely comparable with ours is preserved in The Art Institute of Chicago (George F. Harding Collection, 1982.2243a-d); others are held in the Marzoli Collection, Brescia, and in the Stibbert Collection, Florence.

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The crowned arms of the Barberini family, three bees on a heater-shaped shield, stamped at the collar of the backplate of the cuirass, seen opposite

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CUIRASSIER HELMET GERMAN OR DUTCH. c. 1630 STEEL. 15.1 x 10.2 in / 38.5 x 26 cm

This closed burgonet style of cuirassier helmet for the field originated at the beginning of the seventeenth century for wear with the new three-quarter-length armours of the heavy cavalry. Portraits and battle scenes painted and engraved during the Thirty Years War (1618–48) document the widespread use of the helmets by cuirassiers armed with swords and pistols, though lancers still wore heavy close helmets and the light cavalry harquebusiers favoured open-faced burgonet helmets and the zischägge.

Our helmet, typically of bright steel, would have been embellished by oversized and multi-coloured feather plumes. The quality of the highly decorative fretwork pattern on the upper bevor of our helmet indicates that it belonged to an officer’s expensive suit of armour. The embossed ribs on the helmet’s skull would have lent its structure additional strength; these ribs would also have reflected the sun magnificently on the battlefield – creating a crown of light around the warrior.

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MODEL EQUESTRIAN ARMOUR

BY E. GRANGER PARIS. c. 1850 STEEL, BRASS, GOLD, WOOD, BRONZE AND MARBLE. 17 x 17 in / 43 x 43 cm

Edward Granger arrived in Paris by 1820; there he established a business at 70 Rue de Bondy, today Rue René Boulanger, registered as a maker of giltbronze jewellery and of occult items. As early as 1844 Granger exhibited the meticulously detailed miniature armours for which he became renowned at the Exposition des Produits de l’Industerie Française, after which the artist met with tremendous commercial success.

Granger also created full-scale armours for the Paris Opéra and the Duchess d’Orléans. She requested a perfectly scaled etched three-quarter armour to fit a five year old boy – Louis-Philippe-Albert, Comte de Paris, later King Philippe VII, pretender to the French throne and eldest son of the Duc d’Orléans. We had the privilege of handling this armour, which featured in our 2009 catalogue, no. 41. Granger’s armour for the young Louis was published as an engraving by the Musée Challamel in 1844; Granger was credited as ‘the distinguished Parisian Armourer’.

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MODEL EQUESTRIAN JOUSTING ARMOUR MUNICH, ATTRIBUTED TO THE WORKSHOP OF ERNST SCHMIDT. c. 1900 STEEL, WOOD, LEATHER, CLOTH, PLASTER, BRASS, PAINT, HORSE HAIR, VELVET AND GILT FILIGREE. 26.5 x 15 x 41.5 in / 67 x 38 x 105 cm PROVENANCE: THE VISSER COLLECTION, FINE, RARE AND IMPORTANT ARMS, PART I, SOTHEBY’S, LONDON 3 JULY 1990, LOT 208

This exquisite model’s levelled lance and galloping horse illustrate the moment immediately prior to striking an opponent. Perhaps to satisfy the popular misconception that a complete jousting armour was a full head-to-toe ensemble, the maker of this model included full leg defences more appropriate to a field or combat armour. The inaccuracy may be forgiven for the minute attention to detail which the sculptor lavished upon this work.

The armour resembles in detail and style a man-and-horse miniature illustrated in the catalogue of Ernst Schmidt. In the late 1870’s Schmidt bought an existing antiques business at Pfandhausstrasse 5, Munich; he re-directed the business, specializing in reasonably faithful reproductions and superb small-scale models of armour such as this equestrian model of a mounted knight competing in a German joust.

Schmidt employed highly skilled armourers, one of whom, Lorenz Kilian, was descended from a family of armourers active in the seventeenth century. Following Kilian’s death in 1919, Schmidt secured Leonhard Hugel, a master armourer who created some of the finest work produced by the Schmidt atelier. Their notable customers included Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, the Grand Duke Friedrich of Baden, Duke Friedrich of Anhalt and the Archduke Eugen of Austria.

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Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following for their assistance, for which we are deeply grateful.

Nicholas McCullough Ian Eaves Clive Thomas David Alexander Dr Michael Burns Paula Turner Thomas Richardson Jonathan Tavares Jason Hopper Alan Marsh Chris Challis Anna Tomaszewska Nickki Eden

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Notes

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Designed by Jason Hopper, district-6.com Printed in the UK by Orchid Print, orchidprint.com Š Peter Finer MMXV

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Peter Finer E S TA B L I S H E D 19 6 7

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