Lobster-tailed pot helmet

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Lobster-tailed pot helmet. This example has a single sliding nasal bar and fixed peak to protect the face, Dutch mid-17th century.

Lobster-tailed pot helmet, also known as the zischägge, horseman's pot and harquebusier's pot, was a type of combat helmet. It was derived from an Ottoman Turkish helmet type. From c. 1600, it became popular in most of Europe and was especially worn by cavalrymen and officers. The helmet gradually fell out of use in most of Europe in the late 17th century; however, the Austrian heavy cavalry retained it for some campaigns as late as the 1780s.

Origin

A Turkish Çiçak helmet (16th century), ancestral to the later lobster-tailed pot helmet. The cheekpieces and neck guard are supplemented by a mail defence in this example (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The lobster-tailed pot helmet had an oriental origin, being derived from the

Thirty Years War
when it became known as the zischägge, a Germanisation of the original Turkish name.

Characteristics

English helmet for a harquebusier c. 1635, with typical three-barred face protection and longitudinal comb on the skull, the laminated and hinged cheekpiece is incomplete

The lobster-tailed pot had a rounded skull-piece, which was sometimes fluted. The skulls of English-made helmets were usually formed from two sections, joined by a raised comb running from front to back; the skulls of helmets manufactured on the continent were most often raised from a single-piece of metal. Cheekpieces, commonly made in one piece but occasionally articulated, were attached to the skull by leather strapping; however, the better quality examples are sometimes hinged. To protect the face there was either a fixed forward projecting peak that incorporated a sliding nasal bar retained by a large screw, or a hinged peak with three attached bars. Finally, the helmet had a laminated defence (or a single-piece of plate ridged to imitate separate lames) to protect the back of the head and neck that was said to resemble the tail of a lobster.

harquebusier being the most common type of cavalry in Western Europe during the 17th century.[4] The single nasal-bar type was characteristic of Continental Europe, whilst the three-barred type with a pivoting peak was more widely used in the British Isles.[5] Many European-made lobster-tailed pot helmets were later imported to Britain during the English Civil War. Occasionally, older helmets like the burgonet or sallet were modified to resemble the 'lobster-pot.'[6] As stated by General George Monck in 1644, the "headpiece with three small bars" was intended to be pistol-proof.[7]

Decoration and appearance

Modern reproduction of a helmet of James II of England made in 1686. The face protection is in the form of an openwork depiction of the royal coat-of-arms

The appearance and finish of lobster-tailed pots varied greatly, from the highly decorated, superb-quality examples made for individual commanders down to crudely executed "munition-quality" types, which were mass-produced to equip large numbers of ordinary cavalry troopers. High quality helmets could be decorated using a range of techniques, including

Polish winged hussars, with metal crests and enlarged, decoratively shaped, nasals being not uncommon.[8] A number of extant helmets have tubular plume-holders attached, this, taken with the evidence of contemporary illustrations, indicates the use of feather plumes.[2]

Use

Polish Hussar szyszak with elaborate wing-like crests of pierced metal, 17th century

This form of helmet was widely used during the

Ironside cavalry.[2] The common misconception of Cavaliers wearing plumed wide-brimmed hats whilst the Roundheads wore helmets is definitively disproved by a surviving order signed by Charles I himself for 33 'potts', along with other cavalry armour, for the use of his own troop of horse in 1642. Another order, this time from the Parliamentarian authorities, dating to 1644 for 300 "potts with three barres English" indicates that each helmet, no doubt of basic quality, cost 7 shillings.[10]
Similar helmets were worn in the 17th century by Polish winged hussars and were termed "szyszak" in Polish, again a derivative of the original Turkish name.[11] Austrian cuirassiers were equipped with the lobster-tailed pot helmet as late as the 1780s, long after its use had died out elsewhere, when campaigning against the Ottoman Turks.[12]

Gallery

  • Cuirass and lobster-tailed pot helmet of the English Civil War (1642–1651), displayed at West Gate Towers and Museum, Canterbury, England.
    Cuirass and lobster-tailed pot helmet of the English Civil War (1642–1651), displayed at West Gate Towers and Museum, Canterbury, England.
  • Armour of Stephen Báthory (c. 1560, later King of Poland), displayed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.
    Armour of Stephen Báthory (c. 1560, later King of Poland), displayed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.
  • Turkish conical helmets of 15th to early 16th century, displayed at Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey.
    Turkish conical helmets of 15th to early 16th century, displayed at Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Turkish conical helmets and body armour of 15th to early 16th century, displayed at Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey.
    Turkish conical helmets and body armour of 15th to early 16th century, displayed at Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Chichak (šišak, zischagge or erikhonka) of Nikola Šubić Zrinski (1508-1566), Ban (Viceroy) of Croatia, at an exhibition in Čakovec on the 450th anniversary of the battle of Szigetvár - rear side
    Chichak (šišak, zischagge or erikhonka) of
    battle of Szigetvár
    - rear side

Notes

  1. ^ Robinson 2002, pp. 62–63
  2. ^ a b c Blackmore 1990, pp. 15–16
  3. ^ Oakeshott 1980, pp. 221–222
  4. ^ Tincey 1990, p. 5
  5. ^ Blackmore 1990, p. 15
  6. ^ Blackmore 1990, p. 16
  7. ^ Tincey 1990, p. 11
  8. ^ Bull 1991, pp. 111, 118, 121
  9. ^ Tincey 1990, pp. 11–12
  10. ^ Tincey 1990, p. 12
  11. ^ Brzezinski 1987, p. 7
  12. ^ Haythornthwaite 1994, p. 16

References

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