Korean Helmet
Full Description:
A large and impressive helmet, the bowl is made from two iron plates joined vertically by rivets to a narrow covering strip with median ridge. The brim is fitted with a brow plate with cut-outs for the eyes, and above this is a short peak. The bowl is surmounted with an inverted cup-shaped mount pierced for a (missing) plume tube. The helmet fittings are thickly damascened with silver, the decoration includes lotus flowers, foliage and a key pattern.
Korean helmets are seldom found outside of museums, and very little is written on the subject. We can however compare this example to an example known to exist which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated by McKillop p.115, no.51. According to museum records it is said to have belonged to a ‘Corean Prince, and was taken by the troops of the Prince of Hizen during Taiko Samu’s expedition from Japan to Korea in 1594’.