Italo-Corinthian Bronze Helmet of Type B with Incised Decoration

Culture: Greek/Apulian

Period: Late 6th to early 5th century B.C.

Material: Bronze

Dimensions: 20 cm high; 30.5 cm long

Price: Sold

Ref: 2463

Provenance: Axel Guttmann (1944-2001), acquired 1993 in Krefeld, Germany. Auctioned with Hermann Historica on 18 April 2008, lot 317. Last in the collection Gilles Grimm, France. Accompanied by a French antiquities passport.

Condition: Tips of the cheek guards with additions, otherwise very well preserved. Inside an ancient reparation.

Description: Quite an early form of a so-called Italo-Corinthian or pseudo-Corinthian helmet. This type developed in southern Italy from the Corinthian helmets of Greece. The small cut-out eyes, the nose guard and the powerful neck guards are purely decorative and should intimidate the opponent. The helmet was rather worn like a cap. This early example, in which the cheek guards are still separate and only connected by a small bridge, is hammered from a single piece of bronze sheet. Finely engraved depictions of horses are still recognizable on the cheek guards. A long, horizontal neck guard was cast out at the back. The calotte is round, thick eyebrows are worked out from the centre away, which swing up to eye level and end in a ridge surrounding the helmet crown. The rims of the helmet are framed by a broad decorative band of pairs of lines, hallmarks and herringbone pattern, hatched decoration in the area of the nose guard and the upper rims of the eyes, flower-bearing plant stems at the corners of the eyes. Two bronze rods riveted together are attached to the calotte, which held the certainly opulent helmet decoration. Each side has a hole for the chin strap, above are engraved palmettes. On the neck guard two small remains of a wire eyelet, which fixed the helmet decoration at the back. Inside the old collection label “AG 435”, which refers to the famous Axel Guttman collection. Mounted.