Help with helmet, origin?

[dennee]

Yes, I have seen a bunch of very similar helmets, some with the Buddhist designs and more without. On ebay and from various dealers, some reputable, some not. I have seen it once identified as Korean, but usually Tibetan. I think you would have to agree that such a helmet, if genuine, would have to be rather scarcer than it has been in my experience. I asked Don LaRocca last year if he had seen a genuine prototype for these, and he said, no. I have seen something somewhat similar in a monastery in central Tibet (see below).

I can post pictures of fakes from ebay and from the Barkhor, if you like. And yes, they are generally convincingly patinated, although some are better than others in terms of uniformity between the constituent pieces.