please take a look at Valentine's round kettle hat.
http://www.varmouries.com/tran_13.html

what is that little knobbie thingie on top? how is it attached? does it serve a purpose????

daniel

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Db

It is purely decorative. Were it a spoon, it would be called a kopf (head), in English it is probably reffered to (when it is at all) as a fineal. In this case, I'd say it is peened over in place as a rivet. Many Franco-Flemish / English helmets are depicted in mid 15th century art with little points to the top of the bowl of the skull, and there are something like a dozen actual examples surviving that imitate the art. A higher quality helmet would probably be finished in that fashion rather than having the fineal applied.

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There are plenty of illustrations of decorative 'balls' on top of helmets ... esp. in the Beauchamp Chronicles (c.1480's) but these are substantially larger and obviously decorative and tend to be to hold a crest of some form ... eg.g ostrich feathers

Also ... the pedant in me but ... surely the art imitates the surving examples rather than vice versa.