Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/44

 We will, in the first place, describe those of the Italian order to be found in the Wallace Collection and elsewhere. Although we are aware that the Italian Celata was in use throughout the first half of the XVth century, we dare not assign any of the examples we illustrate to a date earlier than about 1450. In the Wallace Collection, No. 75 in the catalogue is perhaps one of the earliest with which we are acquainted (Fig. 334). It is of the so-called Hoplite type, having a finely moulded skull-piece with an acute keel-like section. The face-opening is shaped as the letter T, but the ocularia are eye-shaped and have round their border a reinforcing band, square in section, which was added to prevent a hostile weapon from glancing into them. The edge of the lower border is turned outwards, and is of triangular section. Around the middle of the skull is a row of flush-headed rivets for the attachment of the

lining. An armourer's mark, probably that of Antonio da Missaglia, repeated three times, is on the right-hand side of the skull-piece at the back. This salade came from the collection of Sir Samuel Meyrick, to whom it was presented by M. Vendramini. It is illustrated in Skelton's "Engraved Illustrations of Antient Arms and Armour," vol. ii, Plate LXXIV. Next in point of interest is No. 39, which is also of the Hoplite form (Fig. 335). It even more closely resembles the Etruscan helmet and must have been suggested by the model of Theoplion. The skull is high and finely moulded, entirely forged from one piece, the ocularia taking the form of two oval apertures divided by a nasal guard; around the skull is a row of fourteen rosette-headed rivets for the attachment of the leather strap, still in position, to which could be sewn the lining. This helmet, which was formerly in the collection of the Comte de Nieuwerkerke, is North Italian, and might be dated within the third quarter