Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/130

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it is far less romantic, we are inclined to accept the latter theory. We have on several occasions seen a fine late XVth century armet hanging above the tomb of some worthy of late XVIth or early XVIIth century date, when it has been perfectly evident from the discrepancy of date alone that the head-piece could not have been worn by the knight over whose tomb it is hung, and that the helmet must have been supplied out of "stock" by the funeral furnisher.

Fig. 443. Armet

Spanish, about 1500. The surface is blued. No. 81, Wallace Collection

Of the purely Spanish type of the armet head-piece, apart from those which it has been suggested might be Spanish, we can give no better illustration than the third armet in the Wallace Collection, No. 81 (Fig. 443). We look upon it as belonging to the first quarter of the XVIth century. Its entire surface is blued, and though its workmanship is on the whole poor and rough, a good deal of spirit is shown in its general form. The skull-piece has a low roped crown, the greater part of the forehead being reinforced. The cheek-pieces are very ample, and curl out at their edges, where there are small holes through which the lining was secured. It seems improbable that this armet ever had an attached camail. It has the full ordinary visor, extending to the forehead, with the ocularia pierced in it, and with holes in the lower part of it for ventilation. A characteristic Spanish feature may be noted in the fluting of the visor immediately below the snout. This we also find on a visor of a Spanish armet formerly in our own possession, but now in a private continental collection (Fig. 444).