being composed of iron bars, such as are generally associated with those many helmets of various dates which, in the XVIIth century, were filled with makeshift bar visors for use in the famous games on the bridge at Pisa, Giuoco del ponte di Pisa. The helm pictured is of sound, if somewhat coarse, workmanship, its great visor lifting on a hinge above the forehead, as in the case of the early bascinets. The skull-piece extends well down the back and over the gorget to a corresponding depth. In these back and front parts are large circular holes for the attachment of the helm to the breast- and back-*plate. In the case of this example the face defence is kept closed by a chain passing round the neck of the skull-piece. We have never had an opportunity of making a personal examination of this helm, but we have the Baron de Cosson's assurance as to its genuineness. Having compared it with a similar helm in the Imperial Armoury of Vienna which is said to have come from Saxony, we claim for it the same nationality; but we hardly accept it as belonging to the period assigned to the Vienna example by the late Herr Boeheim, that is, to the middle of the XVth century, preferring to place it in the first quarter of the XVIth century. M. Viollet-le-Duc, on page 354, vol. ii, of his famous Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français, gives an illustration of a knight, armed for a tournament with a fluted wooden sword and wooden mace, who wears a helmet of somewhat similar construction. The Vienna helm (Fig. 502) of this type is not entirely of iron; but is built up of leather upon an iron framework. This example affords no better protection for the face than can be given by a cross-hatched iron grill; while at its top is a large tubular socket for the crest. The whole head-piece is indeed suggestive of a very complete singlestick helmet of modern times; but from the excellence of its workmanship, its charm of colour, and its curiously heraldic appearance, it is, generally speaking, attractive. In the Schloss Museum of Sigmaringen, in the fine collection of arms formed by one of the former Princes of Hohenzollern, are two very fine late XVth century leather tournament helms of this same type, but with wirework over the opening for the face, helms quite similar to large fencing masks. We have been unable to obtain photographs of them.
THE CREST UPON THE HELM
The helmet of the XIth century, which was pointed at the top, interrupted for a while the ancient custom of cresting the head-piece with wings or feathers, horns or masks of beasts. But as soon as the knight's shield
