Bought this a few weeks ago for a very ridiculously low sum. The helmet weighs about 4 1/2 pounds and is just short of 13 inches in height. Have removed about 75% of the red rust and found the surface to be blued. Appears to be one piece, more than likely welded or silver soldered at top of comb. Material is of uniform thickness and relatively smooth with only a few hammer marks, both brim and comb are worked from the same stock as the bowl halfs(?). Has good quality decorative rivets, but no washers or evidence of suspension or cheek pieces/straps Believe it to be a very well done Victorian piece. Any thoughts or comments are welcome. (Including this is the wrong thread!)

Regards,
Dan

Pictures from the inside, especially the "welded" area would really help.

I am certainly no expert on these things, but the very precise curvatures and related geometries found in this particular piece seem to be uncannily characteristic of modern metal-stamping production processes...

well in terms of general SHAPE, morions like that DEFINATELY exist but the question is whether that matches up to the historical antiques.. heres some images from
http://www.faganarms.com/A-North-Italian-Mori...9-731.aspx thats one example of a comb morion which yours appears to be based off, assuming its authentic
and in a book on the collection of the landszeaus graz armoury in austria. the bac of the book had a morion looking just like that one.

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Dan, the orange color of the rust indicate active or newer rust ( the nice choclate brown patinra you find on some originals is what very old inactive rust looks like ) is one hint that this item may be newer. Pics of the inside would be very helpfull. My initial feeling without pics of the inside is that this is newer. While the ones often seen on ebay these days are welded ( often badly ) from multiple parts which you say this is not beyond possibly the comb, i've seen some Victorian era copies of this form as well so it is possible that it is a Victorian era copy. These Victorian era copies if decently done have come into thier own as antiques in thier own right in recent years. The lack of washers on the rivets on the inside is often and indication of newer manifacture as well, especially since this set of rivets would have held in the lining band.

Hi,

Thank you for your input, your comments helped reinforce my opinion.

Cleaned the interior of the comb with a mild acid, the soldered seam is now very evident, the seam also shows in the photo of the brim interior. Have been carefully removing the rust from the exterior to preserve as much of the original coating as possible. referred to it as bluing, it actually has a heavy purple tint to it. Also found that the under side of the brim was plated or tinned, but very little of this remains.

Have come to the conclusion it is pretty good example of Victorian era craftsmanship.

Cheers,
Dan

This helmet just shouts "Victorian", probably made for a 19 cent "wannabe baron" BUT its a good quality example