"German Reiter Headgear???" Topic

I have some Essex German Reiters with the headgear as shown in George Gush's book (see attached picture), but am not sure if that is a metal helmet of some kind or a soft cloth/felt hat. Does anyone have any info on it?

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Thanks, any help is appreciated,

Terry

I've seen illustrations of similar hats made out of various materials in civilian as well as in military settings of this period. However, I don't remember where, I also have seen an illustration of hat like that made out of metal, rust colored and with nasal. This particular illustration is probably metal as you can see chin guards as well.

If you decide to paint hats as metal helmets, don't paint them silver metal. Give them black or brown color as they were simulating civilian fashions. Otherwise, they can be any color, just look at contemporary paintings of civilian hats of the time.

BTW, I recently painted 12 of those from Old Glory range…

The Gush artwork is horrible as far as historical accuracy is concerned, I have seen able to identify a lot of the original period drawings and paintings used as inspiration by the artist and in many cases I can not understand how he ended drawing the way he did.

The Reiter hat in the original source is clearly a felt hat and it lacks the armoured chin straps. Hat shaped helmets turn up in the next century but I know of no 16th Century example connected to Reiterstyle armour. Reiters were very strongly connected to variations of a single helmet style, the Sturmhaube aka Burgonet which is universal in the documents and artwork.

Terry,

I was able to find an illustration in some of the resources you had passed on to me when working on my stradiots for the Venetian army. Unfortunately I could not tell the source, but the hat was colored black and had no chin straps.

Daniel,

What was Gush's source for the reiter shown above?

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Some very interesting discussion here. Always enjoy when Daniel S. provides us with some insight. 16th century reiters are one of my favorite combatants. I know there is debate about the caracole but the idea of it is so neat.

Daniel S. would the Reiters of the 1560s (say during the battle of Dreux) typically wear the burgonet and 3/4 plate armor that we see in later illustrations? I've seen the Gush artwok and other illustrations that depict pistol armed reiters in chainmail covering the upper chest and shoulders and that felt hat. Would they have been from a different era (say boar spear) or are they just wrong? Thanks for any insight!

By the 1560's Reiters wore armour that was actually barely even 1/2 plate.
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A large part of the arms lacked plate protection and the legs were completly unprotected if the Reiter did not have a mail skirt. A few officers wore heavier suits but the rank and file wore heavily standardised armour of the type seen in this Jost Amman image. It was often known as a Trabharnisch. This armour style is well documented both in Reiter contracts and in the records of the armour makers, in some cases such as the great Styrian armoury in Graz it is possible to trace the armour from the worksshops of Nürnberg to the large collection of surviving Reiter armour still on display.

Most of the 3/4-armours identified as being armour for Reiters are in fact not cavalry armours at all but rather infantry armours.

The mail clad Reiter is this one I suspect:
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Jost Amman never provided a lable for this horseman so we don't know if he is a Reiter, a highway man or a noble traveling in a dangerous area. The large mail cape also covers the torso in such a way that it is impossible to see if he is wearing plate protection for the chest.

Druzhina.
Based on some very specific details I would say that it is either based on a mid-16th C painting probably by Cranach (or possibly a copy of that painting) or a couple of 19th Century reconstructions based on the same.

In the painting it is possible to misinterpret the roped edge of the gorget as an armoured chinstrap and Cranach is AFAIK the only one who shows actual Reiters with a symetrical yet fairly deep fauld on both back and breastplate. He is also one of the few artists who actually painted early Reiters in detail.

Daniel S, some of the best info I've seen on Reiters.

If you were to paint the figure as depicted in the Gush drawing in my original note, how would you do it – as a metal type helmet or as a felt cap?

Thanks,

Terry

Felt hat, Cranach only shows black hats among Reiters while his men-at-arms wear black as well as other colours such as red or even a golden yellow.

Thank you very much Daniel, I can go with that. Great feeling like a dilemma is solved!

Terry