Perseus Bascinet

Description of the Product

This medieval bascinet owes its name to a magnificent piece of medieval fantasy. Greek hero, Perseus, is flying on Pegasus, his winged horse, and is fighting a sea monster using a huge scythe as his weapon. Perseus is rescuing Andromeda, as she has been offered as a sacrifice to appease the sea monster. Luckily Perseus saves the day by killing the monster and wins the heart of Andromeda. Perseus is wearing a very similar helmet as this version we are offering.

Bascinet was a common helmet type and was used from the beginning of the 1300's all the way to late 1400's. By 1350 bascinets had replaced great helmets on battlefields and bascinet remained as heavily armored soldier's head protection until the 1450's (with some modifications on the way). Bascinet was mainly worn by the wealthy knightly class and heavily armored men-at-arms.

The eye-slit of this bascinet is not one continuous, wide and narrow opening, but is divided into smaller parts by bars. Such barred ocular protected the eyes much better than open eye-slit. Wide open eye-slit is a weak point in the helmet, and there is a danger of the thrust of your opponent getting through. Barred ocular reduces vision slightly but improves security. It was a compromise of better protection at the cost of vision.
The shape of this bascinet is rounder and smoother compared to the traditional hounskull-bascinet. The roundness of the shapes and barred oculars became common during the end of 1300s and early 1400s.

Bascinets were typically fitted with a mail curtain –called aventail- to protect the neck and throat of the wearer. This helmet has brass vervelles riveted on to the edge of the helmet for easy attachement of your mail aventail. The helmet doesn't come with aventail. Aventails can be purchased separately from our selection or you can use one you own beforehand with this helmet.

• Made of 2 mm thick steel. Steel thickness may vary due to the handcrafted methods used on its manufacturing.
• Available in two sizes M and L
• Size M for head circumference of approx. 60-61cm and size L for 63-64cm
• Openable visor
• The visor locks to an upright position with a spring pin
• Unlike in the pictures, the visor locks down using a leather strap and buckle on the other side and a hook lock on the other
• Inside the helmet you have liner for height adjustments and a leather chin strap
• Weight approx. 3,4 kg
• Made by Marshal Historical