we will refer the reader who wishes to study further examples to those which appear on certain suits which we have illustrated in our chapter on the Maximilian school.
Before we give some account of the close helmets which belong to the second half of the XVIth century, we ought to mention a few of those magnificent head-pieces constructed directly under the influence of the Kolman family of Augsburg, the Wolf family of Landshut, and of their schools, which occupy an intermediary position as regards the period of their production in the century. It is not our intention to give more than a few illustrations; but so fine are some of the works of these armourers that it would be an indifferent list of the various types of close helmets of the XVIth century which failed to take notice of their achievements in this direction. These helmets cannot be classed with the Maximilian head-pieces, nor do they follow the Milanese fashion; they illustrate a type of their own to which we give the name of the landsknecht, a type which shows fine workmanship and decoration applied in strictly good taste. Within the same category we include those head-pieces found on the suits of armour termed "Spanish," for they are constructed on the same principle of head defence. In this connection we might allude to the wonderful helmets to be seen in the Royal Armouries of Madrid and Vienna; but coming nearer home we prefer to give as our first illustration of such a "Spanish" head-piece one to be seen on a suit in the Wallace Collection, No. 428 (Fig. 1188). In the case of this example, so excellent is the quality of the work and so admirable is the method of the enrichment that we are inclined to see in the whole harness to which it belongs not merely a suit influenced by his school, but one actually made by Desiderius Kolman of Augsburg in the closing years of the first half of the XVIth century. The skull-piece of the helmet is of finely modelled keel form with slightly flattened crest. The chin-piece opens down the side and is hinged below the point of the visor. The visor and mezeil are in one, acutely pointed in front, with two narrow slits forming the ocularia. There are numerous circular and oblong apertures for breathing purposes. The upper edge of the visor is escallop-shaped and chamfered; the lower edge is hollowed to a scaled roping. The pivots at the side are on the principle of the XVth century armets, fastening by staple and pin beneath the plate, which is hollowed to receive them. The lower edge of the helmet is roped to fit the top plate of the gorget. The helmet retains much of its original quilted yellow satin lining; while the elaborate mechanism for keeping the visor closed, and for retaining it in
