Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/243

 emblazoned with the arms of Saxony, which dates from the first quarter of the XVIIth century and is now in the Musée d'Artillerie, H 234. A great many of these cabassets are extant in various states of preservation, but this is the finest specimen we know of (Fig. 1292); here the gilding is in good condition and the exposed iron portion of the skull-piece still retains its original blue-black patina.

Of leather, embossed and tooled. Italian, about 1590 H 183, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

Among the curiosities we have met with in the way of head-pieces of this order we may mention the combed morion, H 183, of the Musée d'Artillerie (Fig. 1293), which is entirely fabricated of cuir bouilli, and is embossed and tooled with figure subjects, one of which has been construed by the authorities as representing the death of Bayard. We ourselves, however, are rather inclined to think that this helmet is of Italian origin of the closing years of the XVIth century and not of French provenance, as the subject depicted on it would seem to suggest; it is to be compared with a similar one in the Armeria Reale, Turin, No. 67 in Angelucci Catalogo, etc., page 187, where it is illustrated. Constructed in the same medium of cuir