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Originally Posted by Oliver Pinchot
I just received this image of a Moro helmet which is of the first type, from a collector who says it weights around 4 lbs and isn't bad to wear for short periods (I didn't want to ask....)
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Oliver, it looks like the ear guards on this one may have been replaced, they do not seem to match the rest of the helmet.
Here is something that I think no one has seen, the Portuguese gold helmet presented in the early 1600s by the Portuguese to the Raja Dom Alesu Ximines da Silva (Raja of Sikka) along with 70 elephant tusks and other assorted valuable items. The Sikka royal family name was changed as a show of allegiance with the Portuguese. When I compare this helmet to other examples it appears that there are some similarities, possibly the other examples were a reflection of the original helmet.
Here are a couple of pictures of Don Jozef Thomas Ximenes da Silva, Raja van Sikka from the 1900s, showing him wearing the same 17th century helmet and posing with what I assume is some of the original ivory elephant tusks given to his family by the Portuguese in the 17th century.
Also some comparative pictures of the original gold 17th century helmet and some other known examples. Its possible that the bosses around the base of some similar helmets are mimicking the spikes around the base of the original helmet. The middle image is the only known iron example of this type of Indonesian helmet.