Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/305



About 1340. Found in Northern Italy.

(a) Profile view. (b) Front view.

From the brass of Sir John d'Aubernoun the younger (1327), Stoke d'Aubernon Church, Surrey

After Stothard

From the brass of Sir John de Creke (1325), Westley Waterless Church, Cambridgeshire

After Stothard

away round the forehead. We are very much inclined to think that the originals of these particular head-pieces, and of others like them, were actually of Eastern, probably of Saracenic, workmanship; they remind us irresistibly of the Crusades, from which they were probably brought as valuable souvenirs. This is a supposition supported by the fact that there are many so-called Turkish and Saracenic helmets which, from inscriptions upon them, can with certainty be assigned to the XIIIth and even to the XIIth century, and which, were they completed with European fittings, would have exactly the appearance of the two bascinet helmets on the brasses referred to. Many of these fluted and