Salade à longue queue aux proportions élégantes,... - Lot 182 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Salade à longue queue aux proportions élégantes, dans le style allemand vers 1470-80. A German long-tailed sallet, elegantly proportioned in the manner of circa 1470-80. Constructed to the correct weight, of one piece, the skull strongly rounded with a full length medial ridge developing into a flattened low comb over the crown, the upper edge of the sight with a slight out turned lip, the lower edge projecting forwards as a short prow, encircled by a band of lining rivets following the line of the sight, drawn-out to a sharply pointed tail, the latter struck with a mark, and the edge with a narrow outward turn. H.: 24 cm - L.: 38 cm - W.: 22.5 - Wt.: 2835 g. Provenance: The Solm-Brauenfels family, Hessen. Sold as part of a Gothic full armour (as given in the Galerie Fischer auction catalogue detailed below). William Randolph Hearst. Galerie Fischer, Luzern, November 25, 1964, lot 178a (sold CHF 17,000). The mark on the tail is apparently unrecorded. The interior shows unusual hammerwork, the result of using a hammer with a very small head. This style of workmanship is characteristic of Raymond Bartel, the armourer to William Randolph Hearst. A sallet of similar construction also showing characteristic small hammer marks was made by Bartel and included as an addition to the sale of the armoury of the Dukes von Ratibor, Galerie Fischer Waffensaal des Schlosses Grafenegg, II Teil, May 2, 1934, lot 67.