parchment moulded hollow and coloured, the wings gilded. The base splays outward to fit the top of a helm. That disastrous fire which broke out in the Royal Armoury in 1884 burned away the painted ornament of this crest; but, thanks to careful drawings which remain, we know that the lower part was enriched with blazons of a shield in which a quadrangular escutcheon bore the arms of Aragon and the castle of L'Almudayna in Majorca. The late Conde de Valencia de Don Juan heard the story of the crest from Don José Maria Quadrado, curator of the archives of Majorca. When it became known that this rare antiquity belonging to the Balearic domain of the Crown of Spain was still extant, a royal decree of 1831 gave instructions that the Majorca corporation should hand over this and other historical objects to the Crown Bailiff. Since that year it has been in the Royal Armoury of Spain, so rich in historical pieces. Finally we must mention the gilt metal crest now upon a late bascinet-like head-piece in the Imperial Armoury of Vienna (Fig. 505). This is reputed to be that worn by Georg Castriota, famous as Skanderbeg (1406-66). We have always believed that in this case crest and helmet have been brought together in a later age, and that the finely modelled crest must have been made for a conical bascinet head-piece of the earlier XVth century like that in the Bargello, Florence (vol. i, Fig. 297); for it is not of the fashion of those worn on the great jousting-helm.
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Fig. 505. Helmet and crest
Reputed to have been worn by Georg Castriota (1406-1466)
Imperial Armoury, Vienna
With this ends the short list of those mediaeval helm-crests which the present writer has seen and examined. Yet many more must surely wait for the collector in those parts which lie out of the common track. Perhaps, in the armouries of Hungarian and Bohemian castles, crests will yet be found by the antiquary, when circumstances shall allow him again to take up his search for the gear of old wars in such places.
The present writer has to make his grateful acknowledgements to his friend, Mr. Oswald Barron, for the simple and yet concise manner in which he has assisted him in dealing with the heraldic significance of the crest. Mr. Barren's rare knowledge of the subject and admirable style are manifest in this concluding part of the chapter.
