‡ A VERY RARE ITALIAN GREAT BASCINET, CIRCA 1... Lot n° 171

‡ A VERY RARE ITALIAN GREAT BASCINET, CIRCA 1400-50 in excavated condition, formed of a one-piece skull and a further plate enclosing the lower portion of the head, the skull with medially-ridged crown rising to a high point, near triangular face-opening, and the lower edge flared outwards and drawn-forward at the chin (extensive losses, worn through in places, expert repairs), 29.5 cm high Provenance Found near Ayia, Napa on the South East coast of Cyprus Christie’s 19th October 1977, lot 59 Howard M. Curtis Expertly conserved by Zacov Barov, former head of conservation at Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California Literature Howard M. Curtis, ‘2500 Years of European Helmets 800 B.C. - 1700 A.D.’, North Hollywood, 1978, pp. 86-87. Claude Blair, Notes on Armour from Chalcis, in Arms and Armour at the Dorchester 1982, p. 11 The distinctive form of this helmet is closely comparable to other examples found in the former Venetian Castle of Negroponte (Chalcis), Euboea, Greece, 1840. Another is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. No. 29.158.46). For a discussion of this group see ffoulkes 1911, p. 381-391 and Blair, op. cit., pp. 7-14.