A FINE AND RARE GERMAN ETCHED AND GILT COMB MORION OF THE SAXON TRABANTENLEIBGARDE OF THE CHRISTI

A FINE AND RARE GERMAN ETCHED AND GILT COMB MORION OF THE SAXON TRABANTENLEIBGARDE OF THE CHRISTIAN II, ELECTOR OF SAXONY (1591-1611) with tall skull formed in one piece and rising to a roped comb, the base encircled by a row of sixteen gilt-brass lion`s masks over lining-rivets, each with a ring in its mouth (two rings missing), narrow brim rising to a point at the front and rear, decorated at its edges with a roped inward turn, struck with Nuremberg mark and the maker`s mark, a pair of shears, at the front, fitted at the rear with gilt-brass plume-holder cast and chased in high relief as a female herm, 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, complete with its original cheek-pieces comprising three lames on the left and two on the right (one missing), each etched and gilt with bands of running foliage around its border and fitted at its centre with a gilt-brass foliate boss over an iron rivet, and retaining much original gilding throughout 30cm; 11 3/4in high

Provenance The Saxon Electoral Armoury, Dresden Colonel Norman Colville, sold Sotheby & Co., 12th June 1953, lot 66

The maker`s mark is perhaps that of the Nuremberg master Martin Schneider (Müller & Kunter 1984, pp. 263-5 and 269). A shield struck with the same mark was sold in these rooms, 8th December 2012, lot 178.

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.