Circa 400-350 BC A bronze helmet, a variant of the Negau type, a regional Italian style with a characteristically conical shape. The tall, capped form resolves in a concave neck with a pronounced brim. It once would have been decorated with attachments and feathers, as similar known examples demonstrate. Their distinctive shape represented the ferocity and might of the Etruscan army. Memories of these soldiers lived on for centuries after the Etruscan metalsmiths stopped producing them, as evidenced by an eastern Hungarian Celtic tetradrachm (ca. 2nd century BCE) that depicts a horseman wearing one of these helmets and holding a torc, a symbol of power. Cf. a pilos helmet in Berlin, illustrated in Antikenmuseum Berlin (Berlin, 1988), no. 1 on pp. 80-81. The item has undergone X-ray fluorescence analysis to confirm the metallurgical content suggesting its ancient origin and lack of modern trace elements. The report prepared by an independent Belgian Laboratory will apany the purchase. Size: L:215mm / W:230mm; 520g Provanance: Property of a London doctor; formerly in the J.H. collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA.