A RARE SOUTH GERMAN CLOSE HELMET FOR THE TOURNEY, IN THE MANNER OF WOLFGANG GROSSCHEDEL OF LANDS

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 rivet-holes 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 ventilation-slots, 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 visor-prop, the right of the neck further fitted with a brass swivel-hook to secure the push-button operated spring-catch 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; 131/2in 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.