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This watered-steel helmet, commonly known in Persian as a “kulāh-khūd,” is of a hemispherical bowl ending at the top with a protruding spike. Riveted at the front of the bowl is a screw bracket that secures a sliding nose protector (damāghak) of rectangular section with flattened, lobed finials. On each side of the nose protector is a small plume holder (jā parī) with flattened lobed base. A long mail aventail made of riveted rings, used for protecting the same and face, attaches through holes around the rim of the bowl. At the base of the helmet, same level where the screw bracket is attached, is a concentric band of inscriptions. 



The helmet is gold-overlaid with a spiral split palmette design that covers the entire surface of the bowl. The base of the spike contains finer, more delicate foliage motifs; so are the flattened finials of the bracket and the bases of the plume holders. The sliding nose protector has undulating vine motif running across its length. 



Kulāh-khūd in Persian is literally translated as ‘hat helmet’. It seems this type of helmet replaced the turban type during the sixteenth and seventeenth century in the Persian and Indian territories. The earliest known dated helmet of this type is from the year 1088/1677, but one can observe this type of helmet in manuscript paintings as early as the sixteenth century. However, most surviving helmets of this type was produced in the 18th and 19th century, where they were used as ceremonial objects, for example, during the Qajar period. 



Inscriptions:

In the large cartouches around the base of the helmet, verses from the story of Rustam and Isfandiyar from the Shahnama of Firdawsi. Words and letters missing in some places, repeated in others:

چو رستم گز اندر کمان راند /زود 

بدان سان که سیمر[غ] /فرموده بود 

[بزد] تیر[بر] چشم اسفندیار 

سیه شد جهان /سیه شد جهان [کذا] (پیش) آن [نا]مدار/

خم آورد بالای سرو [سهی] 

‘When Rustam with haste fitted the tamarisk-shaft in his bow

In the manner in which the Simurgh had told him,

The arrow struck Isfandiyar in the eye,

The world turned dark before that hero,

The top of that tall cypress was bent,

…’

In the small, intermediary cartouches:

دولت / ابد مدت / سلطان / سلاط‍ی‍[ـن] / والخاقان

‘ … the eternal reign of the sultan of sultans and the Khaqan …’



Comparative material:

Three helmets with similar spiral split palmette design were sold at Christie’s London:

28 April 2017, lot 63; 17 Apr 2007, lot 257; 16 Oct 2001, lot 208.

And two at Sotheby’s Paris, 30 June 2021, lot 138 and lot 139.



Qajar Shield

This shallow bowl-shaped shield (separ) of steel the circular shield The innermost frieze follows the domed shape while the outermost flattens out to end in a semi-circular iron edging riveted in place. 

Split-leaf arabesques dome using koftgari technique. Four hemispherical bosses with openwork foliate rims. 



The border is richly decorated with chiselled steel cartouches containing calligraphy. Gold-damascened floral background.



The dark grey watered steel has a wide border filled with floral arabesques in fine gold koftgari (steel overlaid with gold) work. A smaller koftgari circle in the field encircles four bosses and is attached to four lozenge-shaped gold cartouches with floral arabesque designs. 



The four bosses on both shields are almost identical, with the same gilded relief designs surrounding each of them. Additionally, the borders on both shields are divided in the same way, with three different types of floral arabesques filling each section.



For other comparative examples, see the 17th century shield from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2015.509); three seventeenth century shields, the Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection (Inv. RB-131, Inv. RB-132 and Inv. R-876).



A large number of sets of armour were made during the Qajar period and were exported throughout the Middle East, from Morocco to Turkey. Most were used for religious passion plays (taziya) and parades rather than for actual use in combat, or were worn by Palace bodyguards. The passion plays commemorated the martyrdom of Husayn, Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, in the month of Muharram. They were also exported to Europe where they were popular decorative items. 



In the large cartouches around the base of the helmet, an undeciphered text, possibly in Arabic, followed by verses from the story of Rustam and Isfandiyar from the Shahnama of Firdawsi. With words and letters missing in some places and repeated in others:

…

چو رستم گز اندر کمان ]/راند زود

بدان سان[ که سیمرغ فرموده بود 

بزد تیر /بر چشم اسفندیار 

سیه /سیه [کذا] شد جهان پیش آن [نا]مدار/

خم آو[ر]د بالای سرو سهی 

‘…

When Rustam with haste fitted the tamarisk-shaft in his bow

In the manner in which the Simurgh had told him,

The arrow struck Isfandiyar in the eye,

The world turned dark before that hero,

The top of that tall cypress was bent.’



In the small, intermediary cartouches, garbled and not all deciphered:

 در[ز]مان د[و]لت / و[کذا] ابد مدت / سلطان السلا[طین] / [ا]لسلاطین ... / ... /سلطان سلا[طین] /والخاقان ا /ابن الخاقان

‘In the eternal reign of the sultan of sultans of sultans [sic] … sultan of sultans and the Khaqan son of the Khaqan’