Note particularly the quilloche ornament on the comb, and the rendering of the figure subjects quite in the Fontainebleau manner. The helmet now lacks its gorget plates.
A coarser type of such a decorated close helmet, but, we venture to think, of German origin, and belonging to the closing years of the XVIth century, is to be seen in the collection bequeathed to the town of Florence by the late Mr. Frederick Stibbert (Fig. 1200). Here indeed can be seen actual decadence; for not only is the helmet made in two halves joined down the centre of the skull-piece, but the metal of the head-piece is poor and has an appearance as if made of tin. To be just, however, it must be admitted that this head-piece is now but a shadow of its former self, being much overcleaned and repaired. It is entirely ornamented with alternate bands of relief ornaments with recumbent nude figures, amorini, etc., and of plain polished steel. At one time this helmet held high rank as one of the treasures of the famous Magniac Collection.
Of those close helmets that we accept as being of English provenance, we have given illustrations of four which are credited to the Greenwich school of armourers whose works have been illustrated and described in Chapter XXIX of this volume.
The helmets are respectively those belonging to the suit of the Earl of Worcester (Fig. 1108), to the lost second suit of Sir Henry Lee, Master of the Armoury to Queen Elizabeth (Fig. 1123), the second helmet on the suit made for George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland (Fig. 1132a), and that on the suit of Sir Christopher Hatton at Windsor Castle (Fig. 1113). The work of this school is very characteristic, being heavy, solid, and a little clumsy, but marked by a strong individuality both as regards form and a decoration of slightly raised or recessed bands, finely etched and gilded, forming the subject of his decorative scheme in a fashion that somewhat recalls that of the Wolf family of Landshut. In this same school, if they are not the actual work of the same armourer or armourers, we would put the two helmets—both equally puzzling as regards their real maker—which were fashioned for the small suit at Windsor Castle, once worn by Henry, Prince of Wales, elder son of King James I. Meyrick discusses this suit at some length, identifying it with a harness recorded to have been made for that Prince by William Pickering, an English armourer working at Greenwich; we ourselves, however, are sceptical as to this identification.
These notes must close our survey of the close helmets of the XVIth century, outlining as they do the prevalent types that are chiefly found. But
