Helmets
These helmets are still in development, but I am hoping to
produce them sometime in the coming months.
** These helmets are on a temporary hold pending discussions with Academic researchers. The possibility that they will be produced solely for research purposes is being discussed. While access to the non-published findings, scans and photographs of original helmets and ongoing partnership with researchers is unprecedented and will assist in producing these helmets EXACTLY as the originals are made, a moratorium on all public sale of the helmet may be imposed. The discussions to have these helmets produced for extensive testing for comparative analysis against existing artifacts is exciting and puts this project at an entirely different level! It may however keep this helmet in a limited research market until such testing and findings are completed. It hate to say it, but such an exciting opportunity to aid and support this research is really what this company is all about. If such a moratorium is imposed it will be temporary and limited to the duration of the research. In the end the delay will be worth it. The helmet when released for public sale will reflect the very highest stamp of academic approval and endorsement. This is worth it folks!
They have been tremendously difficult to produce as they have to be clay and wax modeled in real life before they can be translated into Bronze. I have gone through roughly a year's time in perfecting the shape and curvatures and details using comparisons of existing artifact helmets. Every time I think I am happy with it I see something to change. I can absolutely see why current manufacturers choose to use air hammers and welding to assemble these helmets as its just so much easier. However the real artifacts are not made this way and so I have chosen to stick with the more difficult and more accurate way to produce these.
I am basing much of the helmet's features using the 'Denda' class of helmets, widely famed for their haunting eyes. This is a detail that shows up on several of these helmets, indicating a class or lineage of workman adhering to this style, though the body of the helmets vary, the eyes are the same. Essentially I wanted to make a Denda helmet and walk it backwards to a Persian War style of mainland Greece as the Denda helmet is technically a Magna Graeca artifact so some stylistic differences appear between it and the associated helmets of its class. So far it is turning out well but the progress is measured literally in millimeters as every little detail must be laid in by hand and much of it extremely delicate.
The pictures below are a record of work that has been ongoing the past year so not all the pictures reflect the helmet in its current state as I am constantly adjusting small details. I decided to publish them ahead of actually having the real bronze in hand because it is important I feel to show it in progress. It has gone from a fairly bland and pedestrian helmet to one that so closely resembles an actual Corinthian as to be hard to tell it apart from an original; and that's what I had hoped to achieve! The helmet appears rough right now as the surface texturing is irrelevant while I have been refining the overall shape and fit, but I am closing in on completing it very soon. I am down to the final details of the oculars and surface smoothness. It has been a long long road! In the end what will be is this.....
A solid, single piece helmet, the final shape and curvatures will be hammered in; no two can be alike or would have been as everyone has different tastes and head sizes. But there will be no welds, no seams and no flaws. These helmets will be every bit a homage to their original counterparts which display these same characteristics. The nasal piece is thicker and a solid, contiguous part of the helmet and not welded on later as is every currently available reproduction. All of these little details have added a lot of time to complete the helmet but they were so important to making a 'real' helmet! The original museum helmets are largely epoxy bandages holding them together as they have lost much of their density and are more like foil than bronze, weighing between 3-5lbs. on average. However a new or 'live' helmet would have all of the bronze's original density. There is no difference between an ancient bronze alloy and a modern one, being exactly the same elements involved. The estimated weight of these helmets as new and finished should fall between 6-8lbs. most likely but it will be hard to estimate at this time. I have already been asked about helmet crests which I estimate between $300-$400 each depending upon the colors, thickness and complexity of the crest box designs.
Enjoy the helmet pictures but bear in mind these are pictures of stages of development and not finished pieces. They are only to show the overall progress and fidelity to the original look and wearability of these helmets. A lot of these show 2 steps forward and one step back.....The finished helmet......well I'm saving that for when I can show it in Bronze!