The lobster-tailed pot helmet, also known as the zischägge, horseman's pot and harquebusier's pot, was a type of combat helmet. It was derived from an Ottoman Turkish helmet type. From c. 1600, it bec
Lobster-tailed pot helmet. This example has a single sliding nasal bar and fixed peak to protect the face, Dutch mid-17th century.
A Turkish Çiçak helmet (16th century), ancestral to the later lobster-tailed pot helmet. The cheekpieces and neck guard are supplemented by a mail defence in this example (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
English helmet for a harquebusier c. 1635, with typical three-barred face protection and longitudinal comb on the skull, the laminated and hinged cheekpiece is incomplete
Modern reproduction of a helmet of James II of England made in 1686. The face protection is in the form of an openwork depiction of the royal coat-of-arms
The European buff coat is an item of leather clothing that was primarily worn by cavalry and officers during the 17th century, but also worn by a small number of infantry. It was often worn under iron
Lobster-tailed pot helmet
…lobster-tailed pot' is widely used in modern scholarship. The typical cavalryman of the period, the harquebusier, would have worn the helmet with a buff coat, bridle-hand gauntlet and breastplate and backplate. It was also sometimes worn by a more heavily armoured type of cavalry, the cuirassier, combined…
English buff coat 1630–1640 showing false fastening of silver tape down the front. Metropolitan Museum of Art
A Royalist cavalry officer of the English Civil War, wearing a buff coat under a cuirass. The buff coat has sleeves decorated with bands of gold lace. Portrait of Richard Neville, by William Dobson, 17th century
Sleeved buff coat once belonging to King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. A bullet-hole is visible in the lower right of the torso section (left to the viewer)