Lot 1070

Description

High-grade copy of a Negauer helmet acquired from the collection of L. Marzoli, with a convincingly rendered appearance of a find from the ground, featuring secondary and artificially created characteristics such as small cracks in the calotte and a green Patina with incrustations. The helmet combines various features from different subtypes of Negauer helmets: the horizontal brim at the border with a low border took Belmonte type helmets as its example. Technically incorrect, however, is the solid cast border, which in original helmets is always made of flanged sheet metal. The crest raised from the sheet metal on the crown occurs only in the alpine variant, which, however, has a high brim border. The two volutes on the forehead, which emerge from the helmet crest, are probably inspired by helmets such as the one from S. Pietro di Campiano (again Belmonte type), as is the circle between them with a boss in the centre and a spike above. The two bosses raised laterally from the calotte are also a misunderstood and incorrectly implemented feature. A small number of Negauer helmets do have such lateral bosses, which, however, are always separately worked and mounted, as in the earlier “Buckelhelmen”, where they constitute a defining feature of the type. The two massive helmet plume holders are also found on various Negauer helmets. In combination with the raised helmet crest of the alpine type, however, they make little sense. The helmet still bears the typical round label of the Marzoli collection (3023), set in an aluminium frame, a collection that, alongside originals, comprised numerous forgeries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many of which long went undetected. A very decorative and skilfully crafted copy, whose inconsistent details only become apparent to the specialist upon closer examination. At the same time, a collection-historically interesting and prominent object. Dimensions: 20 x 28.5 x 24 cm.

Provenance: Axel Guttmann Collection; this piece was acquired from the L. Marzoli Collection in the late 1980s.

Condition: I - Questions about the lot?