Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/116

Fig. 1163. Helmet

German, about 1515. Probably the work of Wilhelm Worms, jun., of Nuremberg Collection: Mr. S. J. Whawell

Fig. 1164. Helmet

Italian (Milanese), about 1510 Collection: Author

order by giving an account of four plain specimens. The first example illustrated (Fig. 1163) is German in provenance, and dates from about 1515. It has the so-called soufflé or bellows visor, which, apart from the two face defences of the kind which we distinguished as belonging to the salades of the Celata type, and to certain later tournament helms, we now have occasion to mention for the first time. The formation of the visor shows that series of peaks or ridges so common in the helmets of the Maximilian type. The ordinary name of "bellows" visor can be easily understood, for in the outline of the visor a strong resemblance to the leathern part of a half closed bellows can be observed; thus the visor has the appearance of a series of ridges with concave hollows, though in the case of this example these are not strongly developed. This helmet is very simple in outline and quite perfect in condition. There is an absence of any form of cabling, either on its low comb or on the edge of its gorget plate, a fact that induces us to assign it to such an early period in the XVIth century. As armourer's mark it has the letter W, which has been construed into that used by Wilhelm Worms, jun., of Nuremberg; for though the mark used by Worms, senr., was apparently a stag, his son occasionally resorted to the use of the single letter W. We next show an Italian type of the plain Maximilian