Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/348

 helm of mid-XIVth century fashion from our English effigies; but in nearly every case, as previously stated, it is placed beneath the knight's head, and so partially concealed.

Doubtless top of an aquamanile. Found at Storey's Gate, Westminster. Collection: Author

It is our theory that elevated crowns were fashioned to the helms in order to fit over the pointed bascinet skull-piece, the popular helmet of the latter half of the XIVth century; and in helms of that date that was doubtless the case. It is interesting, however, to note, on the authority of a French early XIVth century manuscript in the British Museum, the Apocalypse, Royal MS. 19B, xv, ff. 35637, that the conical-topped helm was sometimes worn over a simple chain mail coif, a piece of evidence which serves to prove that occasionally at all events a truncated helm served for purposes of fashion and not of utility (Fig. 320). In the monumental tomb of Günther von Schwartzburg in the Kaiser Dom of Frankfort (see Fig. 263, page 229), who died in 1349, the helm he carries is the usual, if somewhat advanced, form of the truncated helm. In its construction it is very similar to that credited to the ownership of Edward, the Black Prince, except that down the centre of its face it has a strong reinforcing band, which terminates in trefoil shape at its base, and is strengthened round the ocularia. The top of the helm, which is concealed by the crest, must have been conical; for the knight wears the pointed bascinet, over which it would have fitted. Clearly defined are the quatrefoil piercings in the lower front that were used for attaching the helm, by means of a chain and bar, to the mamelières of the breastplate. From this same Kaiser Dom of Frankfort we take our next representation—the helm on the monumental slab of Adolf von Sachenhausen, who died in the year 1371 (Fig. 321). Here the helm is almost identical with that at the cathedral church of Canterbury, except that the spiracula are not represented. The piercings by which the helm was attached to the cuirass are well rendered, as also are the chains shown here hanging from crown-shaped mamelières. Elaborate crests, all of a strictly heraldic nature, are shown upon both of these monumental slabs. The nature of their construction, and the medium