Need more info on this style of close helmet -- myArmoury.com

M Lankin

Hello everyone. I'm very interested in close helms and I am looking for a design that suits me and my needs. I would like to know more about this style of close helmet. To me, the visor looks like it draws inspiration from earlier Armets. It also appears to allow a bit more vision due to the placement of the oculars unlike other close helms that have the lower part of the visor protruding out making you have to tilt your head more forward.

I would like to know if this style has a name, which country or countries it's from, and when in the 16th century it was used.

I've searched all over and I just can't seem to find the info I need. If anyone could help me that would be great.

Thanks

By the way if anyone wants the source on the pictures of the darker colored armor with the helmet having more narrow eye slits, it's right here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Od8dBSxEQP0

Not sure if that whole 16th century harness in the video is historically accurate but I do really like how it looks.

Shahril Dzulkifli

I think I don't have more info on this helmet. But I bet there must be somebody around here who knows more on these type of helmets. Wink

And, by the way, are those nails?

Pieter B. · Posted: Wed 29 Jul, 2015 6:36 am Post subject:

It looks like something you could see in a 1950s technicolor movie.

It looks like it is indeed inspired by helmets that started appearing around 1500 but sometimes the visor is a single line instead of two slits and it always appears to be a bit narrower. Chief difference between this type of helmet and the armet is that it doesn't feature an external wrapper to protect the neck.

You start seeing neck protection made up out of multiple lanes off steel onto which the helmet can be attached allowing greater freedom.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/05/ac/b6/05acb69e0cec68c5df9e2437e5d17273.jpg

Some others had neck protection attached to the helmet itself and the closest thing to the helmet you posted that I could find was the last post in this thread. It looks like a later 16th century model rather than one from the early 1500s

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=183779

I can post a few more examples of helmets that look a bit like it but I cannot give any information on it.

http://i.imgur.com/8Mumgdn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/iftbHdZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DR0JAfd.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Wb3ciQ4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NeIH6KU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SdRao7e.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EAEUXWB.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CFqeZWR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/lC84STY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yMz40qf.jpg

Michael Parker · Posted: Wed 29 Jul, 2015 11:29 pm Post subject:

Well, if you're looking for historically accurate inspiration, you can do a lot better than those guys. It's not terrible, granted, but you should start with the artifacts as your template rather than the ren-faire derivative if you care to do the research.

The close helmet appears around 1510, and as far as I can figure it evolved out of the visored sallets of the end of the 15th century which increasingly incorporated the lower face and throat defense into the helmet itself instead of having a seperate bevor like the mid-15th century sallets. It does owe something to the armet, which in the mid 15th century usually came with a wrapper like this one.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...arch/24691

It's not a very big jump from this http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...arch/26445
To this http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...arch/23213
To this http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...arch/26446
To this http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...arch/25397 (ignore "armet" title, this is a close helmet)
To this http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...arch/26431

Armets continue to be used, and once the gorget is invented the wrapper is not really necessary. Most thereafter have no collar lames and are designed to fit closely to the gorget.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...amp;pos=17

The kind you linked to is about 1550, and this is a typical example although it's missing its collar lames. As you can see, the eye slot is somewhat higher than the lower visor, and it also has a lifting peg so that you can raise the upper visor without needing to raise the lower one.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...arch/26508

They might also have a part that can be used to prop open the visor, like this one.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-colle...arch/26518

I would not take the eye slots on that photo helmet as a good example. They look too large from top to bottom and are a tad too high on the upper visor. You generally want the eye slot close to where it meets the lower visor if not necessarily right against them. If I had to guess, it would be to reduce the chance that an opponent's weapon would easily find the eye slots. The lower visor would probably deflect most thrusts from below. You don't want them too wide open vertically because they might be an appealing target, and you don't need them that wide anyway. Human vision is horizontally oriented, so you get more visual information by widening the slots horizontally than you do by widening them vertically. Small eye slots do not obstruct your vision much if the helmet is well designed, since they sit close to your eyes, and if you make them too open to an enemy's weapons your visor won't be much good as protection.