Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/189

 at the base of the comb, is a double plume-holder in the form of a shield, supported by two children, surrounded by trophies of arms. The comb has a roped edge, and three medallions on each side, the centre one showing a seated Cupid, and the others nude female figures; the space between is filled with vine-pattern arabesques in gold. The umbril has a medallion with a satyr's mask, strapwork, and groups of arms, and a narrow border of vine-leaf pattern in gold dividing these from the roped edge. On the neck-piece are crossed shields and banners, and on the ear-pieces figures of Cupids with a bow, and a torch; the borders are similar to those on the umbril. Nothing is known of the history of this most attractive helmet save that it came from the W. H. Forman Collection, which was formed in the second quarter of the XIXth century.

By Lucio Picinino, about 1560. Collection: Mr. D. M. Currie

Guards of municipalities and the personal guards of great houses frequently had their particular head-pieces, which as often as not took the form, in some shape or another, of the open casque. Of these head-pieces none are more famous than those worn by the guard of Cosimo de' Medici, "Tyrant of Florence" (1537-74) and Grand Duke of Tuscany. Most of the important collections brought together in the past have examples of such head-pieces. In the Meyrick Collection was a specimen, Lord Londesborough's Collection contained the example which we now illustrate