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The Samurai: Japanese Arms and Armour
The Samurai: Japanese Arms and Armour
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A Kawari kabuto [unusually shaped helmet] | Edo period, 17th century
Lot Closed
May 11, 02:03 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 40,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A Kawari kabuto [unusually shaped helmet]
Edo period, 17th century
the lacquered iron helmet in the form of a Dutch puritan steeple hat, comprising of four plates, with a lacquered iron fukurin with raised rivets, the shikoro [neckguard] of five tiers with spaced lacing
The bowl to peak: 28 cm., 11 in.
The shikoro to peak: 34.5 cm., 13⅝ in.
This kawari kabuto appears to be in the form of a Dutch puritan steeple hat worn in the Netherlands during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With the introduction of muskets in Japan at the time, armourers embraced European military style, making helmet bowls of fewer more thickly cut steel plates riveted together. Momonari kabuto (Lot 11) influenced by the Spanish morion helmet may also have been part of this trend, and European civic fashions arguably provided influence on these newly adopted forms of armour making.
For an example of a puritan steeple hat in a painting by Gerard ter Borch in the collection of the National Gallery, London, inventory number NG1399, go to:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/gerard-ter-borch-portrait-of-a-young-man