Kettle Helmet
 

Dear All,

is this an authentic piece?
Diameter 34cm, height 16cm, weight ~1kg

Looking forward to your comments.

Kind regards
Andreas

more pics

I take this for a far too regularly oxydized helmet. Especially the fact that not a single rivet is missing or rusted away is very suspicious and so after my opinion it is not as old as it looks like!
corrado26

Indeed :o .

For the record, on picture 6 , I see 1 missing rivet...

Assuming that this helmet is artificially aged, as your remarks suggest.
How would they achieve such heavy pitting with even holes in the metal ?

Nitric acid, strong, and watch it like a mother hen. Remarkably fast.

Thanks for the replies. Well, on rivet is indeed missing. Concerning the more or less regular oxidation: i had a breastplate from the 16th century which was authentic and also had a totally reulr oxidated survace (much more regular than this piece). Are there any other evidences that this helmet isn't original?

I miss rivets that formerly helt the inside cap and I miss traces where the chin straps have been fixed and honestly I've never seen a iron hat of this style................
corrado26

This is helmet is of spangen construction wherin the bowl of the helmet is made up of from 2 to 6 plates riveted to a strapwork frame. Helmets have been made in this fashion from the iron age to the Renaissance. In this case the bowl is made from two halves from back to front. It appears that a strap running from side to side was used to provide initial stabilization for installing the strap from back to front to join the two halves along their seem. The bowl was the attached to its brim using a simple flange on the brim, I've made a few hundered helmets in this manner in my years swining a hammer. Kettle helmets constructed in this manner appear frequently in 13th and 14th century manuscript artwork. 13th century kettle helms typically have either a more domed, or truncated cone shape to the bowl portion. In the 14th century a bit more of a peaked bowl begins to appear ( by way of example see the illuminated Address from the town of Prato of Robert of Anjou, c. first half of the 14th c.). In the 14th century it also became a not uncommon practice to wear a kettle helmet over another smaller helmet like a skull cap or cervalier this obviating the need for a liner. This piece is done in the manner of a 14th c. kettle helmet. A lack of a liner does not necessarily indicate it is a fake, I cannot determine if any apparatus was installed for a chin strap, or some sort of method for tying it under the chin from the photos. As to the condition of the steel, while pitting can be faked, I've owned " dug " items from WWI that have been in the exact same shape so that's not necessarily a proof of being fake to me. The thing that does strike me as unusual is the rolled and counter sunk border of the brim of the helmet. This technique is something I associate with the 16th and 17th centuries, pretty much all actual armour I've seen from the 14th century has either outwardly rolled or non rolled edges. I've never seen a rolled and counter sunk edge from that period. Does this make it a fake, not necessarily, I learned long ago that since we're studying the left overs its very difficult to nail down exact periods for stuff as there seems to always be that one odd ball that pops up. Is this real or is it fake? I honestly can't say from just pictures, I would really need hands on time to have a better feel for it. My 2c. worth, take it for what its worth.

Regretfully the images that gave reason to this thread had to be deleted after problems reported by thread author.
Tolerance is requested from the participants in its discussion.

I am sorry for that. It won´t happen again!

Best regards
Andreas

I also noticed this helmet on Ebay Germany some weeks ago, I presume it to be a recent reproduction.

best,
jasper

That's exaktly what I think too.
corrado26