[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

I just received the DK book Weapon a few days ago, and I ran across a photo of an interesting helmet. It's a Korean helmet of the late 16th century. It is made of lacquered leather or rawhide (the book isn't clear about which) affixed to an iron frame with a silver cap. It has a brass plate in front, and "brigandine" type cheek guards and neck guard. The caption states that it would have been worn by a wealthy Korean warrior. (I believe most of the photos in this current DK book are specially commissioned photos from the Royal Armouries.) There is another example of a leather helmet from Korea in George Cameron Stone's A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times, this one more elaborately decorated, but the photo is of poor quality. Stone also shows an example from Assam of a black leather helmet decorated with boar's tusks.

I have heard of a few other examples of leather helmets, mainly for the tournament. The knights that took part in the Behourd at Windsor in 1278 were equipped with leather helms, gilded for the highest ranking nobles, and silvered for those of lower rank. In Arms and Armour: Circa 1066 to Circa 1700, Claude Blair has a drawing of an existing 15th century German leather great bascinet for the tourney with clubs. It is constructed of painted leather with metal reinforcements. A similar tourney helm with a leather skull is shown in Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight by David Edge and John Miles Paddock.

There is also the possibility that leather or rawhide helmets were used on the battlefield in Europe or elsewhere. David Nicolle hinted at the possibility of hardened leather helmets being found in a Crusader castle in Israel in the Osprey book The Crusades (also published as Elite 19 The Crusades). He goes on to say that leather helmets were certainly known in England by the late 13th century, but he might be referring to the Windsor behourd. In Armies and Warfare: the English Experience by Michael Prestwich, the author states that, in 1327, Jean le Bel commented that English armour was still old fashioned, with antiquated hauberks and great helms of iron or hardened leather. Edge and Paddock suggest that the spaces in the frame of a spangenhelm might occasionally have been filled with hardened leather plates, similar to the design of the Korean helmet. I searched on the forums here, and found mention of Frankish helmets possibly being constructed in a like manner. Some Osprey colour plates depict a few infantrymen with kettle hats of a similar construction, but I believe they are dubious and speculative at best. Still, it is a possibility based on historical examples.

My question is, does anyone have any more examples of leather or rawhide helmets? Any place an any time is fine, I'm just curious about examples of leather helmets.

Thanks for any and all information you can find!

Stay safe!

[Matt G]

Probably one of the most widely know helmets made with leather is from the Dendra find. This helmet was constructed with a leather interior and an attached layer of boar tusk scales were added for protective benefit. Matt Amt can tell you all about the joys of working with boar tusks.

Connolly provides a descriptive blowout image of how it might have been constructed in his book, "The Ancient Greece of Odyseus".



Here's a pic of the original Dendra Panoply:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6842/1699/1600/lk04m042.0.jpg

The same book illustrates an example of a leather "Feather helmet" which is often associated with the "Sea People" invasion into Egypt (beginning in 1229 BC). I'd love to see how this helmet was constructed, especially around the crown. Unfortunately, I don't know that there are any extant examples of this type of helmet.

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

Matt,
Thanks! I forgot about the Dendra helmet, although I would call it more of a "boar tusk" helmet constructed with leather than a leather helmet. Still, it's a cool and weird example!

I didn't know about the leather "Feather" helmet of the Sea Peoples. That's very interesting! It might function more as padding than a stiff protection; if the leather was dense enough, if might act to cushion blows. If the "feathers" just wrapped around the circumference of the helmet, then they were probably more decorative. I still wouldn't want to get hit in the head while wearing one of those things!

Thanks again!

Stay safe!

[Dan Howard]

The likelihood that the "feather helmet" is made of leather is very low. There isn't a single piece of physical evidence indicating how this typology might have been made. The stone reliefs can be interprteted at least a dozen different ways. Leather is only one interpretation.

One of the Agincourt accounts mentions leather helmets. I can't remember which one. There are also three separate mentions of hide/leather helmets in the Iliad. Two are made from marten's hide [10.335; 10.458], the other is made of bull's hide [10.258-9]

Agreed that the Dendra helmet should be called a "boar's tusk" helm. Not a "leather" helm. The leather only acts as a foundation upon which to attach the teeth. It provides no additional protection.

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

[Richard Fay]

Hello again!

I almost forgot about another example that could be called a "hide helmet" anyway, again from the DK book Weapon. This one's really weird; it's an Egyptian crocodile skin helmet from the 3rd century. A 'natural armour" made into a helmet! The caption states that the wearing of crocodile armour in Egypt continued into classical times, and crocodile armour was popular with Roman soldiers garrisoned in Egypt.

Crocodile skin isn't really leather as such (it's the complete skin, with the scutes and all), but it's the skin of an animal, so I guess it's not too far off the topic of "leather helmets'! It looks like something out of a bad fantasy movie, but I had read about historical crocodile skin armour in other sources.

Keep the examples coming!

Stay safe!

[Merv Cannon]

Been chatting recently with our irish friends at ..... http://livinghistory.ie/modules.php?name=Forums&file=index
about the same sort of thing. this time its the distinctive and unusual Irish "Cathbarr" or helm some of which were solid and some were padded in the 'spangens' .... dont know whether leather was used, but it is assumed so with woll padding underneath and quilted. Still. very interresting though. As usual, any info on Irish gear is harder than finding a Leprechaun .....( thank goodness for Niall Murays site ! )

(Image is from "Images of Irelande" by John Derrick, London, 1581 ....and can be found here, for those who havent already see them...... http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/about/bgallery/Galler...eland.html )

[Jared Smith]

Richard,

You should be able to find and download King Rene of Anjou's Tournament Book. I am not sure I remember the details correctly, but believe Rene was also one of Christopher Columbus's sponser/ advocates.... as an interesting side note. There are great illustrations of cuir bulli tournament equipment of the day in this text.

Leather tournament armour peaked approximately 15th century, and was as close as it got to being standard melee equipment (not for joust.) Combined with blunted wooden clubs it is now interpreted that this was expected to reduce critical injuries. It does not seem like it worked (horses trampling participants to death and severe bruises still were severe problems) and pretty well phased (along with any real melee) out during the 16th century.

Just a suggestion.

[W. Schütz]

Leather helmets at Agincourt where the helmets of (some of) the longbowmen wherent they? Something like "..the english archers where armed very lightly, some only wearing a padded jack and a helmet of boiled leather..".

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

I've found a reference to English archers at Agincourt wearing leather helmets. It's from Agincourt by Christopher Hibbert. It's a "popular history" account of the battle, first published in 1964, but this excerpt is still interesting: