A Zischägge and Matching Pauldrons from an Officer’s

Blued and Gilt Light Cavalry Armour of Distinguished Quality, attributed to the workshop of Jacques Vois

c. 1635

Flanders, probably Brussels.

Iron alloy (steel), copper alloy, gold, textile, silver thread.

98 cm / 38.5 in × 72 cm / 28.5 in on mount

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Europe

This helmet and its matching pauldrons are of an exceptional quality. Although constructionally typical of the superior workmanship of the leading Flemish armourers of the period, the extent to which they are decorated is unusual, the particular attention given to the decoration of the subsidiary borders of the articulated plates is alone a striking elevation. Such a high level of attention to decorative detail at this datenaturally suggests senior and distinguished ownership.

Furthermore, these pieces are preserved in fine untouched condition throughout, the outer surfaces have a very light russet finish, the result of the natural oxidisation of their original blued finish, the simple consequence of age. The helmet interior retained an early quilted lining of crimson textile with border ribband of silver thread. The lining is almost certainly the original, comparable linings being seen on a number of the helmets discussed below.

The present zischägge, or horseman’s pot helmet, belongs to a Flemish range of open-faced helmets made in the period 1630-40, the variation in their respective forms dictated by the differing requirements of cavalry and foot soldiers. The Flemish helmets are superior in their well-finished elaborate construction style to the majority of the Germanic versions more widely produced for cavalry within the same period. The same can be said of the east European versions from which the zischägge evolved in western Europe.

These pieces are closely related to a number of identified works attributed to the Brussels workshop of Jacques Vois, and are additionally comparable to armour made by the Flemish Master ‘MP’, each of whom made armour in the early 17th century for members of the Spanish Habsburg court, of which examples are preserved in the Royal Armoury, Madrid.

The present zischägge compares very closely also with another, among three surviving pieces of armour in the Royal Armoury, Madrid, made for Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias (1629-1646), the sole heir to Philip IV. See Valencia de Don Juan, Catálogo de la Real Armería de Madrid, inv. no. B. 21, fig. 72.

Another zischägge, with a possible attribution to the workshop of Jacques Vois is in the Royal Armouries, Leeds (inv. IV.587). This example has blued and gilt finish in common with the present helmet and its construction is once more closely comparable.

Another, of bright steel, again closely comparable to the present one, is in The Art Institute of Chicago (Harding Collection no. 101, inv. no. 1982.2235), while still more comparable Flemish helmets are in Leeds (IV. 165), and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (HEN.M.93-1933).

Further comparison can be made between the form of the skull of the present helmet and that of a Flemish pikeman’s helmet, again in Leeds (IV.1615), the skull also having originally been blued. This helmet is said to have formerly been in the Royal Armoury, Madrid.

This helmet can in turn be compared to helmet A 417 in the Royal Armoury, Madrid, presented to Philip IV of Spain by the Infanta Isabel. It closely relates to a group of armours and detached pieces marked by the Flemish Master ‘MP’; those two helmets appear to be by the same hand. See Walter J. Karcheski, Jr., ‘Notes on a Newly-identified Armour by the Flemish Master ‘MP’, in the Smith Art Museum, Springfield, MA’, in the Journal of the Arms and Armour Society (London), Vol. XI, No. 6, December 1985.