A Close Helmet for a Louis XIII

Cuirassier Armour

c. 1620 – 30

France. Steel, copper alloy and leather. 19.69 in

Provenance

Private collection, United Kingdom

Acomparable cuirassier helmet, perhaps from the same workshop, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Acc. No. HEN. M.68-1933) and though attributed to a Flemish workshop, there was in fact negligible differentiation between French and Flemish armour of this period. A further example in The Wallace Collection, London (A 179) was formerly in the collection of the Marquis de Belleval.

Comparison can also be made with the close helmets of two consummately important French armours of the period: one made for man and horse made for King Louis XIII, circa 1630, today in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris (Inv. G.124 et G. 564), and a French cuirassier armour made for Henry, future Prince of Wales and King, circa 1607. The latter armour was sent to Prince Henry in May 1607, and is now preserved in the Royal Collections at Windsor Castle (RCIN 72832).

A Two-Hand Sword

c. 1560 6

South German or Swiss.

The blade, Munich, from the workshop of Ulrich Diefstetter Steel, bronze alloy (latten), wood and leather. Later grip. 185 cm / 73 in

An historic group of two-hand swords with the hilts and blades broadly related to the present sword is in the Schweizerischen Landesmuseum, Zurich, all of which are ascribed to circa 1560. Further examples, again similar, are in the Bernisches Historisches Museum (from the original zeughaus collection).

Among the two-hand swords in each of these two collections are single examples with the blade bearing the mark of the Munich bladesmith Ulrich Diefstetter (circa 1536-89). His mark, a pair of flails in saltire joined by a horizontal bar, is inlaid in latten on the present blade also. A further blade bearing Diefstetter’s mark is mounted to form a practice ‘Long Sword’ preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (acc. no. 14.25.1111).