Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/236



Probably French (Paris) workmanship, about 1580 H 198, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

Fig. 1266), which we suggested was probably a French Parisian work of about 1570-80. So to this provenance and to about this period do we assign the specimen in question. As a head-piece it is soundly constructed; while the decoration of acanthus-like foliage, introducing figures delicately embossed in low relief and surface chased, appears to us to be essentially Parisian. Our opinion is not in accordance with that expressed in the official guide of the Musée d'Artillerie, in which the morion is ascribed to Italian workmanship of the middle of the XVIth century. The last morion which we illustrate and describe is the very famous helmet made for King Charles IX of France (Fig. 1285), now in the Louvre. It is possibly the most sumptuous head-piece of its type in existence, and shows, like the