A rare Ottoman tombak helmet, Turkey, late 16th-17th century

of domed form with thirty overlapping vertical pleats, the rim and peak encircled by stippled zig-zag and stylised chain bands with owner's name inscribed at the rim, the bar for the sliding nasal and some gilt copper rivets still in place, vestiges of cloth lining to interior

inscription

mimma ‘umila bi-rasm al-janab al-‘ali al-amir ‘uthman amir alwa ibn al-amir ‘ali

“One of what was made for His High Excellency al-Amir ‘Uthman the Amir of alwa (a general of brigade or in charge of banners) son of al-Amir ‘Ali”

James Allan writes: "Not all arms and armour manufactured by the Ottomans were of steel, nor presumably were they all designed for the battle field. Gilt copper with engraved decoration was also used.  The softness of the copper and the gilding suggest such objects were parade ground pieces. To what extent an Ottoman sultan or vizier would be willing to use richly decorated objects in battle, is difficult to decide" (Petsopoulos 1982, p.41, no.16a).  And yet the significant number of tombak pieces in the Karlsruher Türkenbeute from the Baden-Baden collections confirms that tombak armour was certainly used at the siege of Vienna in 1683, and must have made a glorious impression on the battle field.

For comparable tombak helmets, respectively in the Military Museum and the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, see Atasoy, N. and T. Artan, Splendours of the Ottoman Sultans, Memphis, 1992, p. 120 and 123.  A helmet in the Benaki Museum, Athens, (Athens 2006, no.218, p.166) inscribed with the date 1007 (A.D. 1598-9) helps to date the whole group. See Property of a Princely Family and Other Aristocratic Estates, Sotheby's Amsterdam, 19 December 2006, lots 405 and 413, for tombak recently on the market.