Rare petite salade d'archer, provenant de... - Lot 48 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Rare petite salade d'archer, provenant de la garnison des chevaliers de l'Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem à Rhodes, Italie seconde moitié du XVe siècle. A rare Italian sallet for an archer from the garrison of the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes, second half of the 15th century. With hemispherical skull of one piece drawn down to blunt points over the ears, rising to a low comb, the base encircled by lining rivets, fitted with brow reinforce formed with a slight outward lip over the contour of the lower edge, tail-piece of one lame, and the bottom edges of the brow and tail plates each with an inward turn. H: 20.5 cm - L: 29.5 cm - W.: 18 cm - Wt.: 1100 g. Provenance: The armoury of the Knights of the Order of St. John, Rhodes. Louis Bachereau, Paris. Bashford Dean, New York, April 1920. The skull acquired by Harvey Murton from Dean in 1924; the brow plate and tail plate added by Murton from his collection of pieces of Rhodes armour (Harvey Murton was a former Armourer to the Arms and Armor department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N. Y.) Christie's New York, October 8, 1985, lot 92. Literature: KARCHESKI Walter J. Jr. & RICHARDSON Thom, The Medieval armour from Rhodes, 2000, pp.13-14, catalogue No.1.17. After the loss of Jerusalem in 1187, the Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (created in 1113) moved to St. John of Acre and in 1309 to the island of Rhodes. The Order defied the Ottomans in conducting constant naval operations against its commerce ships and in refusing to pay tribute. Sultan Mehmet II, conqueror of Constantinople, therefore decided in 1480 to crush the Order but he was compelled to withdraw his army after a three months siege. Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566) succeeded in seizing Rhodes in 1522 after eight weeks of fierce siege with 200,000 men. The Grand Master and 160 surviving Knights of the Order could leave the island with their men but had to abandon the armoury. In 1866 pieces from the