Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/142

 94 PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF entire height of the helmet, as it stands upon a table, is 18| inches, and it measures 14| inches across at the shoulders. At the level of the temples the width is 8^ inches, which leaves about two inches for the play of the head ; an arrangement having reference to the visor perforated on one side only ; for, as Hefner has ingeniously remarked, tlie air-holes appear on the right side only of the helmet, the knights in the onset inclining their heads to the left side.* The weight of the head piece is 131b. 4 oz., and it is curious to observe how small a difference exists between this example, and the more ancient flat-topped helmet, engraved at page 420 of the Journal, vol. viii., of which the weight is 13 lb, 8 oz. After two centuries' experience of the close and suffocating ventaille, towards the close of the fourteenth century, the knights seem to have bestirred tliemselves to procure a little more air ; the armourer's skill was taxed to the utmost, and various devices rapidly succeeded each other ; of which the saliant visor, whether beaked or globose, the salade with mentoniere, the coursing hat, the falling beevor, and the ventaille with door, appear to have been the most successful. The beaked form seems to have met two requirements : by the enlargement of the visor more air is provided, and by its acuteness the thrust of an adverse weapon is more readily turned aside. These advantages appear to have been thoroughly appreciated by the warriors of the close of the fourteenth, and beginning of the fifteenth centuries, for we find the beaked helmet depicted in great numbers in the manuscripts of the period. The most usual mode of aflSxing the ventaille was by pivots at the side, as in the example before us. Another method was by a hinge over the forehead, so that the visor was lifted up in the manner of the shutter of a ship's porthole. Instances of this may be seen iu Add. MS. 15,277, fol. 73 6, in the British Museum ; in the fine helmet in the armory of the Castle of Coburg, figured in Ileideloff's 'Monuments of the Middle Ages;' in that engraved by Hefner, from his own collection (Trachten, pt. 2, pi. 50); and in the monumental effigies of Hartmanu von Kroneberg in the castle chapel of Kroueberg, and of Weikard Frosch in St. Katherine's church at Fraukfort- on-the-Maine.^ Leaders appear sometimes to have had the beaked visor gilt, while the rest of the helmet retained its iron-colour, as may be seen in Roy. MS,, 20, C. vii., ff. 62 and 136, and iu other manuscripts. "The plate gorget worn with the beaked bassinet is of very rare occurrence. Among many hundred examples of this kind of visor in ancient manuscripts and elsewhere, the writer has failed to detect more than two in which plate is substituted for chain-mail : these occur in Roy. MS. 20, C. vii. fol. 24, and 15, D. vi. fol. 241. Around the lower edge of the gorget will be observed a number of holes, arranged in pairs. These appear to be for fastening it to the body armour by points ; the mode of which may be seen in the camail of the statuette of St. George at Dijon, engraved in the twenty-fifth volume of the Archajologia. " Real helmets of this type are of course but few in number. There is a beaked bassinet in the armory at Goodrich Court (figured in Skelton's work), another iu the Tower, procured from the Brocas collection, the Luftlocher, wtil sich der Kopf wiihrend ikre Ausgrabmifje^i. des Kaiiipfc-3 mehr auf die linke Seite « Hefner's trachien, part ii., plates 85 ".egt ; viixa audi bei Hclmeu spiiterer Art and 49.
 * ' The beaked visor is the most striking feature of this curious helmet.
 * " Auf der rechten Seite sind mehrere vorkommt." — J}ie Burg TannenJburg uiul