Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/125

 *century] armets—an arrangement by which they could be removed at pleasure. This helmet, heavy and very sound in its construction, is probably of Nuremberg workmanship, and dates within the first quarter of the XVIth century (Fig. 1178). Among the examples of armour bequeathed to the British Museum by the late Mr. W. Burges there is just such another visor to be seen on one of the close helmets—an example that was formerly in the Meyrick Collection (Fig. 1179). In this case the visor is of earlier date than that of the other parts of the helmet. The visor contains a hole for the spring catch which originally fixed it down, but no corresponding catch exists in the skull-piece; the form of the skull-piece belongs to the second half of the XVIth century, and the visor is distinctly Maximilian in style. Doubtless the skull-piece and visor were associated late in the XVIth century.

Adapted to a late XVIth century skull-piece. Burges bequest, British Museum

Reverting once more to the Tower of London, we note among the oldest recognized possessions of the Armoury a grotesque helmet (Fig. 1180) known since 1660 as the helmet of Will Somers, the well-known jester in the service of King Henry VIII. This grotesquely fashioned helmet figures