Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/184

Fig. 484. Helm-bascinet

About 1460-80. Musée Lorin, Bourg-en-Bresse

last of the complete bascinets mentioned on pages 260 et sqq., vol. i. Indeed, we are confronted with no small difficulty in differentiating between the last of the great bascinets we have described and the first of the general service helms: so alike are they as head defences. We select the helm now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and formerly in the collection of the Duc de Dino (Fig. 483, a, b, c), because it illustrates a hybrid combination of the fighting bascinet and of the tilting helm, and also because it is the first of its class to show the movable visor. The helm in question was found in the neighbourhood of Bourg-en-Bresse, which in the XVth century was within the Burgundian domain; so it is possibly of French origin. It is of unusual shape, and was used by mounted knights in contests of both lance and sword; but unlike certain other helms of this same family, it was not used for foot contests, head-pieces for that purpose having numerous small openings for breathing purposes. Foot contests required violent exertion, and it was therefore necessary that respiration should be as free as possible. This helm has only one opening—that for the sight, which is strongly protected by the projection of the lower edge. The skull-piece resembles in form the large bascinets already described, and is of one piece, having the part which forms the protection for the back of the neck riveted to it. The visor, which is extremely solid, is fixed by hinges and pivots. The fully protective chin-piece riveted to the skull-piece covers the base of the visor; but it is so attached as to be immovable. It is probable that this helm, at the period at which it was worn, was subjected to some alteration. The pivots show that originally the visor could be raised; but the alteration has obviously been made by the same armourer who made the helmet itself, his mark