Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/124

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come to our notice two which were obtained from Mlowa [?], in Russian Poland. They were ugly and poorly made; but they unmistakably belonged to a type that was markedly racial. They are the only two of their type with which we are acquainted; and it is just possible that they were the work of some provincial Polish armourer who had as his model a head-piece he only half understood (Fig. 435).

Fig. 436. Armet

Italian, second half of XVth century No. 85, Wallace Collection

Fig. 437. Armet

Italian, second half of XVth century No. 84, Wallace Collection

In reviewing the more ordinary and advanced type of armet, let us first examine three head-pieces that are easily accessible, namely, the three armets in the Wallace Collection, Nos. 85, 84, and 81. No. 85 appears to be the earliest (Fig. 436). The skull-piece has the keel form ridge with the slightly flattened top; the forehead is strongly reinforced by an extra plate, out of the upper part of which are cut two semi-circles. The cheek-pieces are full, slightly overlap at the chin, and finish below in an inturned edge of triangular section to lend additional strength. The visor is of one plate, bluntly pointed, and is without any kind of apertures for ventilation. The ocularium is formed by the space between the top of the visor and the lower edge of the reinforcing plate of the skull-piece. The back of the skull-piece bears an armourer's mark, three times repeated, which is of Milanese origin. The protective rondel on the tail-piece is missing, but the hole for its stem is to be seen. An interesting feature of this head-piece is the applied strip of iron, three-quarters of an inch wide, attached by three rosette-headed rivets which originally covered a leather strap, to