A Very Rare German Burgonet In Oriental Fashion
Circa 1560, Probably Nuremberg
Of russet steel, with conical skull made in one piece and encircled by a band of fluting etched in 'Moresque' style with repeated interlaced strapwork and scrollwork, the slightly recessed rim (old patched repair to the left of the rivetted replacement peak) decorated en suite and pierced with holes for the missing cheek-pieces and neck-plates, the lower edge pierced at a later date with numerous small holes for an aventail (missing), drawn-out at the top to a bud-shaped finial and etched with triangular panels en suite with the rim above a border of ropework, the etched decoration overall retaining traces of original gilding, the Safavid bar-nasal faced in silver engraved with the Nadi 'Aliyyan prayer and 'Aid is from God and an imminent victory' in nast-ta'liq, the latter inscription on the large plummet-shaped finial and all within borders of ropework (the silver over the bar-nasal bracket incomplete), and retaining two later brass cheek-piece suspension links
26.5 cm. high
Footnotes:
For a related burgonet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 04.3.216) and formerly in the Duc de Dino Collection, see Stuart W. Pyhrr, European Helmets, 1450-1650, Treasures from the Reserve Collection, p. 30, no. 46 (illustrated). Another is in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. no. A104)
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