Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/24

 CHAPTER VIII

THE BASCINET HEAD-PIECE FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF THE XIII CENTURY TO THE CLOSE OF THE XV CENTURY

The first, but necessary break in our chronological survey—The bascinet head-piece—Our return to the early years of the XIVth century—First mention, by Guillaume Guiart in 1214, of the bascinet helmet—The probable derivation of the name—The representation of the bascinet in the XIIIth century; the extant examples to-day—The attachment to its camail or tippet of chain mesh, as portrayed in effigy—The first face guard of the bascinet—The lifting nasal protection attached to the camail; the evidence of this in contemporary sculpture—Decorations in gold and jewels, with a record of contemporary expenditure on the indulgence of this fashion—A reference in 1270 to the visor of the bascinet—What it may have been—The first acknowledged visored bascinets—The visor lifting on a hinge attached above the face-opening of a skull-piece—Some known examples—The process of evolution; the visor hinged at the sides of the skull-piece, as in helmets of later date—Some known examples—The crest of the bascinet head-piece; an extant example—The advent of the XVth century; the disappearance of the neck protection of chain mail, and its supersession by lames of metal—The evolution of the "great bascinet" of the XVth century from the bascinet head-piece of the latter years of the XIVth century—Some notable extant examples—The latest development of the bascinet head-piece in the third quarter of the XVth century—The great difficulty in differentiating between the head-piece of the helm type for fighting on foot, and the "great" visored bascinet of the same epoch     225

CHAPTER IX

THE HELM FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF THE XIII CENTURY TO THE END OF THE XIV CENTURY

The second distinctive family of head-pieces—The helm in its primitive form; its first appearance in painting and sculpture in the early years of the XIIIth century—The most trustworthy evidence for its form and make derived from its representation on the aquamaniles of this century—The barrel-shaped outline of the XIIIth century helm—The gradual change in the form of the helm—Two famous Continental types of the early XIVth century helm—The only extant helms of the XIVth century known to the present writer—The Edward, Prince of Wales' helm; the Sir Richard Pembridge helm; the helm of the Pranck family; a helm from Schloss Tannenberg; and a helm found in the River Traum—The probable method of attaching the XIVth century helm to the wearer—The helm made solely for funerary use—Some extant examples     226