Proto-Vader and proto-C3PO masks

These aren't Vader and C3PO masks -- they're "rescue masks" from the 19th and early 20th centuries:

This pair of early rescue masks, shown above, dates from between the mid-1800s and World War I. They look a bit familiar, right? Almost a 100 years before Darth Vader and 3-CPO hit the big screen in "Star Wars" in 1977, these two smoke helmets were worn by firefighters carrying our rescues in smoke-logged buildings. The buzz among collectors is that George Lucas's designers must have found inspiration in these smoke helmets and other like them. In fact, one well-known 19th-century manufacturer was named Vajen-Bader--you could easily get the name Vader from that.

The black leather helmet on the left is labeled "Respirations Apparat" by "G.B.Konic Altona," was made in Hamburg, Germany, and has the look of an African Dan mask. The brass, three-quarter face mask to its right was made in Paris by J. Mandet. This type of breathing mask had a very simple apparatus, allowing only a short range of operation. When used, air would be forced into the helmet through no more than 13 meters of flexible tubing by means of a bellows operated remotely from the outside. Both of these masks have mica lenses to help protect the eyes from heat.

Before Steampunk: Star Wars' 1800s Roots (via Neatorama)

• [GrymRpr]

  I was always under the impression that Darth Vader was a cheap knock-off of Marvels Dr. DOOM.

• [Mitch_M]

  Before I read the post I thought they might be a new Bob Basset creation.

• [Mister44]

  I am pretty confident that these masks had nothing to do with Star Wars. Other than the colors, I don’t even see a resemblance.

  As others have said, C-3PO was influenced by the robot in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.

  Vader was a mash up of WWII German and Samurii.

• [Anonymous]

  “The buzz among collectors is that George Lucas’s designers must have found inspiration in these smoke helmets and other like them.”

  It’s easy to suggest these two helmets as inspiration for Star Wars when you pair them together and remark that they look like the iconic figures, but let us remember the biases of labeling and sorting.

  There must have been countless protective headpieces over the centuries which could be said to strongly resemble Vader’s mask and C3P0′s faceplate. I’m certain if you looked hard enough you could find Roman or Greek headgear (artifact or depiction) that fits the bill well enough that one might label.

  I’ve heard that Lucas was inspired by the kabuto of samurai for the flared upper helmet portion of Vader’s mask, but again, is that merely a rumor or can someone actually find supporting evidence to suggest this as true?

  I think part of the trouble is that masks are an unusual piece of clothing, and being so unusual we don’t give them the attention to detail we might for other sorts of clothes. They all look alike to the average person. And well they might – being as they obscure the face, which we are pretty powerfully hardwired to read, that might muck with our ability to distingiush ‘inhuman faces’ such as masks.

  ~D. Walker

• [GreenJello]

  Really? I mean I see the masks are both gold and black, but that’s about it. Otherwise they look exactly like you would expect a mask to look. Eye holes, rounded dome, etc.

  Vader’s helm is almost a direct copy of a German WWII army helmet + a samurai face mask. Considering the influence of the 7 samurai I think it’s pretty clear where the influences REALLY come from.

  Honestly, these masks are neat, but any connection to Star Wars is stretching it. Which is sad really, these masks stand up fine without the tenuous connection to whip up the fan boys.

• [Jack]

  Wow! Neat! But perhaps Ralph McQuarrie used these as inspiration? He’s far more responsible for the production design of the first Star Wars film than anyone else.

  • [Anonymous]

    Jack,
    As I recall, McQuarrie freely admitted that c3po was inspired by the robot in Lang’s Metropolis. So, maybe Lang’s art crew was so inspired?

• [Anonymous]

  I’d say the one on the left is more Pulp Fiction than Star Wars. Just sayin.

• [artaxerxes]

  Those types of masks turn up frequently in Boer War and WWI photography. It’s interesting to see them out of the context of destroyed villages and thin, malnourished, grime-besmirched soldiers, resting while they wait for their call to go over the top. Just… thought-provoking.

  I’ve also wondered about how people of those times reacted to these masks. (I do have some primary source literature that gives an overall reaction of horror through the 40s, from writers of England, France , Germany, and the USSR-Russia).

  Obviously, there was something so visceral about these masks that they hit the gut then followed up with a visit to the cranium where they became a bogey monster for many civilians and their children. I can remember watching E.T. at age 7 or 8 and being most scared by the scene with bio-hazard suits worn by the gov’t as they came to tent/shut down kids’ house.

  There are many creepy illustrations/artworks after these wars that feature masks like these. They have a very powerful effect on people. Diegp Rivera used them to great effect in his first mural commissioned by Rockefeller: Man at the Crossroads. He gave them the large upper quadrant of the mural as representatives of the soldiers of the armies of the war-mongers and war-profiteers. And he was not incorrect in doing so at that point. In fact, that was a common conception (of Germans and English/French) of the motivations behind WWI.

  Too bad our populace isn’t encouraged to read history to see how much that portrayal synthesizes, or echoes, the actions of our own contemporary governments. I know that hen I watched Werner Herzog’s Persian Gulf War I piece, Lessons of Darkness, I was brought back to thoughts of these masks by the suits/protective gear the contractors were wearing as they faced or made breastworks in front of raging oil-fires.

  As we all know, Rockefeller objected to the inclusion of Lenin’s representation and Rivera re-created the mural as Man, Controller of the Universe, keeping all of the original symbols and characters. Even more intensely powerful was this second iteration: Man, Contoller of the Universe

• [Anonymous]

  cool! =))

• [TenInchesTaller]

  These are terrifying to me.

• [amuckart]

  That’s not too surprising. An awful lot of the imperial helmets are very recognisably based on medieval helmets, so it’s no great leap to get the visors from other places.

  The most obvious ones are the helmets worn by the guys who fire the death star laser, the shape is almost a direct copy of 15th century sallet helmets.

  How long before someone turns up the gas mask that the stormtrooper visors are based on?

• [Blue]

  I’d love to see a movie with this design aesthetic, but I doubt it’ll ever happen. The root of these designs lies somewhere different to where the vast majority of visual artists get their inspiration.

  • [lysdexia]

    You might like “Iron Sky”.