Circa 400 BC An attractive Greek Chalcidian Hoplite Helmet with cheek-guards, mounted on a custom made stand. The Chalcidian helmet was popular in Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, as well as the southern parts of Greece that were colonized by the Greeks. The helmet appears to have been a development of the Corinthian helmet, but with improvements in design which gave the wearer better hearing and vision, resulting in a lighter and less bulky helmet. The helmet wouldmonly have a hole pierced on each cheek piece or elsewhere in order to accept an inner lining which was made of leather; adornments, such asbs of horsehair, were usually placed on the top of the helmet. By the time of Alexander the Great the helmet was still worn by soldiers, most notably the hoplites, the heavy infantrymen who carried long spears; the helmet would later go on to develop into the Attic helmet which is iconic of Classical soldiers. See: Rabinovich, B. Z., Trudy Otdela istorii pervobytnoi kul’tury Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha (Works of the Department of history of prehistoric culture of the State Hermitage) I, 1941, pp.99-171. The item has undergone X-ray fluorescence analysis to confirm the metallurgical content suggesting its ancient origin and lack of modern trace elements. Size: L:320mm / W:245mm; 1.1kg Provenance: Property of a London private collector; formerly in a European collection; acquired from Peter Ing till collection in early 2000s (Vienna). Formerly in an old Austrian collection.