Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/346

Fig. 315b. Front view of the helm on the Walker aquamanile, size of the original

aquamaniles of this type, the flat top of the helm is used as a hinged lid. In most examples this is missing; but in this instance it is in position, and is surmounted by a low, fan-shaped crest. The accompanying body armour is apparently chain mail covered with the flowing surcoat. The wonderful series of tiles preserved in the British Museum from the church, chapter-*house, and other buildings of Chertsey Abbey, which are considered to be of English workmanship and to date from about 1260, show helms as the head-pieces of the various warriors depicted thereon. On page 127 (Fig. 154) we have given the illustration of a mounted archer from this series of tiles, wearing the helm; we here give another illustration of a Chertsey tile, also chosen from Dr. Manwaring Shurlock's "Tiles from Chertsey Abbey," on which is shown the combat of Tristrem with Moraunt, the Irish Ambassador. The head-piece worn by both combatants, it will be noted, are helms exactly of the type seen on Mr. Walker's aquamanile (Fig. 316). Here we will mention a miniature visor in copper gilt found in France of late XIIIth century date (Fig. 317). It must originally have been made for the figure of some armoured saint; but its full face view is much like that of the helm represented in Mr. Walker's aquamanile. At the top is a hinge made as if to lift to show the face of the wearer. It is possible that the little figure for which it was originally constructed was not armed with a helm but with a cervelière, or cap of steel, or even with a chain mail coif, as we see in another illustration (Fig. 139, page 113); but from its proportions, which are very full, it would appear to represent the visor of some form of late XIIIth century helm. In the latter years of the XIIIth century a slightly different type of helm appears, more akin to those extant head-pieces which belong to the latter half of the next century. We are able to illustrate this type from a piece of glazed pottery which, doubtless, formed part of an aquamanile. This fragment, interesting and valuable as a document, yet so crudely fashioned that it fails to show the construction of the head-piece, was found during some excavations made at Storey's Gate, Westminster, in April 1911, and is now in the London Museum (Fig. 318).