Kettle Hat (War Hat) (c. 1460): Art, History and Details

Kettle Hat (War Hat) (c. 1460) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Open helmets like this one were used by medieval infantries. The helmet weighs 12-1/2 pounds. This unusual weight was required for siege purposes—such helmets were worn by the men who attempted to scale the walls of an armed town. The rivet holes along the ridge were for the attachment of the liner.

Object facts

• Title: Kettle Hat (War Hat)
• Date: c. 1460
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel
• Dimensions: Overall: 30.3 x 25.9 x 17.5 cm (11 15/16 x 10 3/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1919

A detail from the museum

Modern soldiers wear Kevlar combat helmets that weigh four to five pounds. By comparison, this medieval helmet is nearly three times as heavy. Imagine what it would have been like to wear such a heavy piece of equipment on your head during a siege.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. Vol. 1, 14th & 15th centuries. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], [1900-1915].
• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.