Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/310

 armoury it is assigned to the XIIIth century; but it would probably be more correctly placed in the first half of the XIVth century.

Formerly in the Brocas Collection, now in the Tower of London (Class IV, No. 6). The alterations to the visor are noticeable

(a) Profile view, with visor lowered; (b) Profile view, visor raised

It is a noteworthy fact that but few of the bascinet helmets represented on the effigies of the first quarter of the XIVth century show either the visor, which we know to have been in use at this period, or even rivets or other traces of its attachment at the sides or on the forehead. We may perhaps find an explanation of this in the custom that prevailed of always portraying the face on an effigy, and in the difficulty of constructing an uplifted visor in the material in which the effigy was fashioned. If the visor was purposely omitted, we should not necessarily expect to find traces of its attachment. In one or two cases, however, such traces are to be found, a circumstance which lends support, rather than otherwise, to the theory that the visors were purposely omitted. An effigy of John Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, though of later date than that with which we are now dealing, shows a bascinet with visor removed; here can be seen not only the rivets, but the small plates with part of the hinge to which the visor was attached (Fig. 276). Stothard illustrated an effigy said to be that of a Blanchfront in Alvechurch, Worcestershire, of about 1340, on which is a very advanced form of salient visor. The ocularium is almost Maximilian-like in its completeness; but the lower part of the visor has been considerably damaged, and it is difficult to determine its original outline (Fig. 277, a, b).