LOT 0518

Roman Parade Helmet with Wrist Guards

3RD CENTURY AD

12 1/2" (3.2 kg total, helmet: 32cm, bracelets 12cm).

A bronze parade helmet comprising a bowl of plaited bronze strips with hollow tapering bronze crest, frontal panel with repoussé wreath detailing and triangular plate to the rear; a matched pair of bronze hinged cuff vambraces of similar plaited-strip construction.

Property of a central London collector; imported from Switzerland in 2009, previously acquired from Mr George Kotolakis in Geneva in the mid-1980s. Accompanied by a report of metallurgic analytical report number 122668/575, written by Metallurgist Dr. Brian Gilmour of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford.

Cf. Travis, H. & J. Roman Helmets, Stroud, 2014, fig.101 for type.

The use of bronze parade helmets by the Roman military is documented, although the type with a silvered face-mask (cavalry sports helmets) is best known. The plaited or openwork construction is paralleled on the later iron type found in Vendel Period (6th-7th century AD) Sweden (e.g. Valsgärde graves 5, 6) which in turn have Roman and Sassanian antecedents. Vambraces of splinted type also feature in the contemporary armaments of the Vendel Period graves.