Close helmet for funerary use

Close helmet for funerary use, with skull, originally from an harquebusier’s pot, formed in two pieces joined along a low medial comb fitted at its apex with a spike for the attachment of an heraldic crest, at its rear with a separate nape-plate, at its front with a visor and bevor attached by common pivots, and at its lower edge by a single deep gorget-plate front and rear, the visor formed in two pieces set one above the other and joined medially by a vertical bar (originally flanked by two further bars now missing), all except the bevor and front gorget-plates, which were until 2011 displayed separately from the other elements, possessing a russet finish.

See also RCIN 67619.

Text adapted from Arms and Armour in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: European Armour, London, 2016