Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/109

 fixing a movable nasal-guard when raised. The same arrangement appears on the fine little XIVth century bascinet (see vol. i, Fig. 261) to be seen in the late Mr. W. Burges's bequest to the British Museum. M. Viollet-le-Duc gives an excellent drawing of the barbute reconstructed with a nasal-guard and camail added (Fig. 424), perhaps of the Wallace example. It will be noted that by an arrangement of the staples, which run up on either side at an obtuse angle from the lower edge of the skull-piece to the forehead line, the very prominent cheek-pieces would be covered by the camail, which, however, owing to the angle at which the cheek-pieces are set, was kept from pressing upon the chin. This head-piece in the Wallace Collection used to be in the collection of the Comte de Nieuwerkerke and was previously in that of the Count of Thun, at Val di Non. It is safe to assume that it is Italian and belongs to the middle of the XIVth century. Reconstructed by M. Viollet-le-Duc, with the nasal-guard and camail in position From the Dictionnaire raisonné du Mobilier Français

As to what actually was the form of this widely used head-piece, uncertainty will always exist; for, as we have already explained, contemporary accounts are extremely contradictory. M. Viollet-le-Duc's theory that the barbute was closely allied to the French open-faced salade is certainly difficult to accept; for we have mention of a barbuta in a will which dates as far back