Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/161

 Augsburg, and very possibly by the same armourer. At Nuremberg is to be seen another suit very similar, but furnished with the tilting salade head-piece. This latter suit is dated 1498.

Appended are the details of the Wallace helm and suit:

The helm is composed of three plates of varying thicknesses, which plates we will call 1, 2, and 3.

Plate 1. The top of the skull-piece. Down the centre of this runs the comb. It is of convex section, and on either side of it there is fluting, which radiates from a point some 9-1/2 inches from the base of Plate 2. The average thickness of Plate 1 is 3/16 of an inch. In the centre of the comb is a screw with a faceted, hemispherical head; which served for the attachment of the crest. Further forward in the comb are twin holes, which are repeated at 4 inches from either side of the comb. These were for the passage of the aiglettes, which secured the quilted lining cap in position.

Plate 2. The back of the skull-piece. Fastened beneath Plate 1, it extends a distance of 7-1/4 inches below the level of the shoulders; the lower edge is cut to four slightly curved facets. At the extreme base is a hinge, detachable in the centre by a staple, the lower plate of which is pierced with a circular hole, through which passes a screw attaching the helm to the backplate. Above this, a little to the left, is a buckle, with which the strap that retained the small wooden tilting shield in position is connected. On either side of Plate 2 is a group of eight perpendicular apertures, 1-1/8 inches long. Above and below there is a second group of four circular holes, the edges of which are fitted with latten eyelets, through which passed the leathern thongs that again secured the quilted lining cap. An annular design is engraved on either side of the back of the skull. The average thickness of Plate 2 is about 1/8 of an inch.

Plate 3. The front of the helm. It fastens over both Plates 1 and 2. In this, perhaps, is manifest the most skilful piece of forging in a head-piece which, as a whole, is a tour-de-force of the armourer's craft. The upper edge is turned inwards, reinforcing the most vulnerable part of the tilting helm, namely, the part beneath the opening of the ocularium. The lower edge of the plate comes down to a distance corresponding to that at the back of the skull-piece; but with this difference that it widens to 9-3/4 inches at its lower part, along the border of which are three groups of twin holes 5/8 of an inch in diameter. Through these pass the three screws that secure the front of the helm to the breastplate. The ocularium is formed by the aperture between Plates 1 and 3, the greatest actual width being 2-1/4 inches; but owing to the