Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/321

Fig. 290. Skull-piece of bascinet helmet, late XIVth or early XVth century

Said to have come from the arsenal at Zurich

Collection: Sir Edward Barry

Fig. 291. Skull-piece of a bascinet helmet, middle XIVth century

The visor was lifted from a hinge at the side

Collection: H. G. Keasby

There is, in Sir Edward Barry's collection, the splendid skull-piece of a bascinet advanced in type, which may be considered as French, and as belonging to the end of the XIVth or to the commencement of the XVth century (Fig. 290). The visor is lost; but the hinges and rivets that held it remain in situ, and, with the skull-piece, are in a perfect state of preservation. It has a small circular hole on the forehead about five inches from the apex of the skull, which must have held a small catch for supporting the visor when raised, and not, as has been suggested, the hinge for attaching an earlier visor. The hole is too small for a rivet of sufficient strength to bear the strain of the visor; moreover, the hinges remaining on either side of the skull are certainly original and contemporary with the helmet. The modelling of this helmet is remarkable, its apex being drawn out to an unusual length. The surface is admirable, and has not been over-cleaned. The edge of the skull-piece over the forehead is slightly chamfered. This helmet is said once to have been in the arsenal at Zurich, but to have been looted from that collection by one of the medical advisers of Napoleon I. Subsequently it passed into the possession of the late Herr Richard Zschille of Grossenhain, near Dresden, who found a visor for it, which, as in the case of the Tower specimen, was in itself a genuine piece, though much