Left: it was not a vintage season for armour in the salerooms, but in Thomas Del Mar’s (24% buyer’s premium) auction on December 5 this very original English or Flemish close helmet of c.1560 reached £11,000.
Like many helmets from old English collections, this example owes its survival to being suspended over a tomb as part of a heraldic achievement, and still has a coat of now flaky funerary grey paint.