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A SUIT OF OTTOMAN ARMOR

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:NA Estimated At:4,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
A SUIT OF OTTOMAN ARMOR
Auctions Imperial is pleased to announce our 2013 sale, to be held March 16 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Timonium, Maryland. Over 300 lots of choice antique arms and armor including armor, helmets, shields, swords, daggers, battleaxes, maces, halberds, matchlocks, flintlocks and percussion pieces will be offered. Our fine selection for 2013 includes broadswords, baskethilts, shamshirs, shashkas, palas, kindjals, khanjars, tulwars and spears, as well as chain mail and breastplates. This sale will also include important swords and daggers from the Greek War of Independence and the armor of the K...
Likely made for a Janissary officer. Comprising a helmet, coat of mail, and armguards. The helmet is of misrka form, forged from a single steel plate of lightly domed section, and chiseled with a series of geometrical cartouches emanating from the gilded silver suspension ring at the center. Alternating panels bear remains of silver inlay, while the others are chiseled with the Arabic character DAL, evoking the close connection between the Janissary Corps and the Bektashi Sufis: Dal signified both meditation in kneeling at prayer and the third, or Dervish, level of Bektashi membership. The mail coif is forged of rings of flattened triangular section closed with pyramidal rivets, as is characteristic of the best Ottoman mail. The coat of characteristic form, likewise wrought of fine riveted rings. The armguards of steel with wristplates intact, connected by mail. Chiseled overall with Arabic inscriptions, each also bears the Saint Irene’s Arsenal mark, indicating that they had at one time been kept at the sultan’s central arsenal in Istanbul. Late 16th-early 17th century. Light wear, very minor losses. Length of coat from nape to hem 71.8 cm. See E. Petrasch et al, Die Karlsruher Turkenbeute, 191: Munich. Hirmer) p. 89 #23 and passim for quite similar Janissary armors captured after the Siege of Vienna in 1683.
Condition II