Rare bourguignotte et sa ventaille amovible,... - Lot 73 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Rare bourguignotte et sa ventaille amovible, gravées à l'eau forte à la manière d'Augsbourg, Italie du Nord vers 1560-70. A rare North Italian burgonet with detachable falling buffe, etched in the manner of Augsburg, circa 1560-70. With one-piece skull formed with a prominent narrow comb swept somewhat to the rear, with pointed peak and pointed neck-guard, fitted with segmented shield-shaped iron plume-holder, and a pair of hinged pierced cheek-pieces, buffe with two falling lames each locked by a spring-stud, the upper lame embossed with a band pierced with slotted breathes, the lower plate fitted with neck-guard of two lames and a pair of short arms at the rear, each carrying a hook engaging a loop projecting from the centre of each cheek-piece, the burgonet decorated with etched bands of slender stems issuing at intervals V-shaped pairs of smaller stems developing into complex scrolling leaves and tendrils and set upon a contrasting stippled ground within double cabled borders, enhanced with bold running "egg and tongue" ornament along the borders, the buffe decorated en suite, with recessed borders, turned roped edges, and later domed lining rivets. H.: 41 cm - L.: 35 cm - W.: 22 cm - Wt. of the two pieces: 1980 g. Provenance: Robert-Jean Charles collection, part II, Tajan-Paris, December 9, 1993, lot 569. The present burgonet and buffe are etched with a pattern identical to that on an Italian breast-plate of circa 1560, preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (the Bashford Dean Memorial Collection, 1929, 29.158.141A). See GRANCSAY, Stephen V, Museum armor and van Dyck portrait from Vienna, in Arms and Armor Essays by Stephen B. Grancsay from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1920-1964, 1986, pp.377-381, pl. 103.3.