Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/126

throughout all the inventories of the armour at Greenwich and at the Tower of London. So complete is its history that we propose to give it in full.

In the 1547 inventory at Greenwich it is mentioned as on a suit "in the seconde House": "Itm upon the Thirde horse A playne Tilte harnesse lackinge a paier of gauntletts a base cote of blacke vellet embrodered w^t cloth of golde, a hedde pece w^t a Rammes horne silver þcell guilte and a Stele Saddell covered w^t blacke vellet." (The italics are our own.) In the 1561 inventory of Greenwich it is included among: "Armour sent to your Mat^s. said father by Maximilian the Emperor garnished with silver and guilte with a Head-*peice of fashion like a Rames head." This must be the head-piece, though from the very bald entry of it, it appears as if it had been placed on another suit. But on which? In the 1611 inventory of Greenwich it is described as: "A Head peece w^{th} a pair of Rames hornes." In this instance it appears alone and not associated with a suit. In the inventory made in 1660, by which time it had been removed to the Tower, it is associated with a jack coat and a sword and has a history attached to it: "Anticke headpeece with Rams hornes, coller, and Spectacles upon it, one Jacke and one sword all said to be William Sommer's armes . . . one."

Fig. 1180. Helmet

Known as that of Will Somers. German, about 1515-20. Tower of London, Class IV, No. 22

In the 1676 Tower inventory it again figures as: "Antick headpeece w^{th}