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Fig. 1241. Triple combed burgonet
Of the guard of Cosimo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. This example would appear to be of North Italian workmanship, about 1570. Collection: Mr. D. M. Currie
(Fig. 1241), the collection of the Baron de Cosson included one, and from the late Mr. Stibbert's Collection at Florence comes another example which we figure (Fig. 1242). Several specimens again are in the Royal Armoury of Turin; while in the palace at Capo di Monte, near Naples, nineteen such head-pieces are to be seen. The existence of such a large number of these casques, and the variation in the quality of their workmanship, make the author think that in all probability their attribution to the body-guard of Cosimo de' Medici is correct; for not only can there be seen on either side of the triple comb of every one of them the Florentine fleur-de-lis épanouie, but from the fact of their duration for thirty-seven years as the more or less accepted head-piece of the guard one would expect to find, as is actually the case, a great variety in the quality of their workmanship. Cosimo de' Medici's reign of thirty-seven years is an important period of the XVIth century, and marks the change from the fine and conscientious armourers' work done in its first half to that disregard of constructional accuracy which characterizes the productions of its second half. The actual form of these helmets of the
