Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/98



Third quarter of the XIIIth century Add. MSS. 11639, British Museum

Middle of XIIIth century. Chapel of St. Maurice, Cathedral of Constance. From Hefner-Alteneck, Waffen

It may be argued that we should have mentioned the chapel-de-fer in the previous chapters which deal with the head-pieces of the earlier centuries; but since we are unable to give illustrations of any actual chapel that can be assigned to a date earlier than the XVth century, we have thought it best to defer such brief description as we can give of this type of head-piece to the present stage of this work. We are inclined to think that the chapel-de-fer was more ordinarily the head defence of the rank and file; though undoubtedly the noble and the knight are portrayed wearing such a form of helmet. Before we refer to actual head-pieces of this class which we are able to illustrate, we will give a few instances of chapawes of earlier date, as they appear in missal and sculpture. A good example of a chapawe of early XIIIth century date is depicted on the mural paintings which were formerly in the old Palace of Westminster (see vol. i, Figs. 143 and 144, also Fig 409 and vol. iii, Fig. 907). Here the head-piece represented is of