Master Armourer Chris Dobson

North Italian Armet Circa 1505

The armet was the classic helmet for the Italian mounted man at arms, from the early 15th century, until the early 16th century. They were exported in large numbers to Northern Europe and England from Milan and Brescia, and the armet construction was adopted at the Royal Armouries in Greenwich, where they remained popular until the beginning of the 17th Century. German armourers developed their own armets in the first half of the 16th Century.

This commission is based on North Italian examples from the early 16th Century, particularly in Udine (CC 165), the Landesmuseum Zurich (LM 4955) and one in the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds. The large brow reinforce and masked hinges are indicative of the date, whilst the breaths are Northern European in character. This shape was also to be seen in the Low Countries and England, either imported from Italy, made by emigrè Italian armourers, or by the local craftsmen they influenced.

Commissioned by a private collector, 1992.