[Adam D. Kent-Isaac]

This picture from Wikimedia Commons, originally from the inventory of the Walters Art Museum, shows what looks to be a Gothic harness with an interesting helmet. The helmet looks like a hybrid of a barbute and a sallet. It's labeled as a sallet in the caption of the photo, but I certainly have not seen a sallet like it. It looks more like a barbute but the pieces, instead of coming together in a narrow "T" slit in front of the face, instead leave a wide opening. There is a bevor worn underneath it.



Full description at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Italia..._51580.jpg .

Anyone know anything about this style? Is it even real? Or some kind of clumsy replica?

[Tom King]

There is a good chance the helmet and bevor do not belong to that (or at least the primary components of that) suit of gothic armor. The bevor does not match up to the breastplate, and the bevor and helmet look cruder than the rest of the harness. As far a barbute and bevor goes, a few people i've known have used that combo due to the barbute's lack of neck protection, but it is most likely a modern anachronism. without seeing the side profile of the helmet, it is hard to tell if it is an open faced sallet or an open faced barbute called a celta (not sure the spelling).

[Marik C.S.]

I'm not sure whether this helmet belongs to this armour or not. To me it looks just badly put together with the bevor resting on the pauldrons which also makes the helmet look a bit weird because the bevor is pushed up unreasonably far into it.
I think it just comes down to semantic whether a celata is considered an italian open faced sallet or an open faced barbute

[Sean Flynt]

Appears to be composite. German harness (or Italian "alla Tedesca") with earlier open-face Italian helmet. A visored sallet--German or Italian export--would be more appropriate. At a glance, I'd say that the bevor is the high Spanish type often worn with brimmed kettle helmets. Maybe it's just mounted so high that it looks like that type. The helmet is certainly mounted too low. If you lowered the bevor and put a proper visored sallet in the correct position, this bevor could work in that configuration. It's just not really appropriate for this helmet, no matter the rest of the harness. The Italians liked the open-face helmets. A bevor or visor of any kind defeats the purpose of the design.