NARRATOR: Stuart Pyhrr, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Curator in Charge of Arms and Armor, talks about the helmet in this case.

STUART PYHRR: The helm is a term used for a specialized helmet intended for the joust or the tournament, invariably of large size and, in this case, considerable weight. This helmet weighs almost nineteen pounds. It was intended for the ‘Stechzeug’, a German term meaning an armor for the ‘Gestech’, the tournament fought with blunted lances. This special form of helmet had a large keel-shaped faceplate that screwed down to the breastplate and a skull piece in the back that was also screwed to the backplate, rendering the helmet rigid—one would have to turn the entire upper body without turning the head as an individual unit. One sees on the frontal plate of the helm deep scarring caused by the lances. The metal is quite thick and it gives you a sense of the power of the impact.

This helm probably comes from the city arsenal in Nuremburg, where the leading citizens of Nuremburg would get together annually for a Mardi Gras-type pre-lenten celebration. Among the festivities, they would have jousts. It’s quite voluminous inside, it would have been filled with a thick padded lining that could be adjusted on the tops and sides by straps or strings to suspend the head, essentially, rather like the GI helmet of today has a webbing inside to keep the head away from the steel surface, so that, if the knight were thrown off his horse in a joust, his head would not rattle around inside the helmet, but in fact would be quite well protected.