casques or burgonets are taken from the suits of the Earl of Worcester (Fig. 1259 and ante, page 27, Fig. 1109), of Sir John Smithe (Fig. 1260 and ante, page 40, Fig. 1120), and of Sir Thomas Sackville (Fig. 1261 and ante, page 72, Fig. 1151), all of which still exist. The superb burgonet on the Pembroke suit has already been illustrated (Figs. 1106A and 1116). We will only describe one—that belonging to the Sir John Smithe suit; for all are of the same construction and differ one from the other in decoration only. The skull-piece has a high comb, hinged neck- and ear-pieces, the surface being now brightened with etched ornaments, russeted and gilt. Fitted to the helmet is a buffe of three falling plates, secured by spring catches to guard the face, the topmost pierced with a horizontal aperture to serve as the ocularium. The comb has a roped edge, and on the sides are flat strap ornaments inclosing panels with the figure of Mars in a chariot, Justice and Fortitude—these are repeated on either side. The ground between is granulated with delicate foliage. On the skull-piece are two boldly crossing straps, with leafy ends, covered with minute foliated ornaments. The peak, neck- and ear-pieces, are margined with bands of a similar character. On the ear-pieces are two round panels, which show figures of Justice and Fortitude in wreaths. On the buffe are figures of Victory and Mars and bands of ornaments. The edges are roped and have a row of brass-headed rivets by which the lining was attached.
Good helmets of the burgonet type were made in the XVIIth century, some quite excellent from the point of their workmanship and design, but in form and decoration according to the taste of the time, though occasionally features surviving from some earlier school of the craft can be traced. English armourers were perhaps more inclined to follow the peculiarities of changing fashion than those of other nations; so that in the XVIIth century their work is often of a marked type. French, Italian, German, and Spanish armourers were content to utilize designs which had been employed before, and which they either modified or exaggerated. After the first quarter of the XVIIth century and onwards, until the final decadence of the armourer's art at the close of the century, the so-called lobster-tailed open helmets with the triple bar face defence, which were so popular both in England and on the Continent, were gradually developed until they finally became very exaggerated in form. This was the open helmet of all classes in England. Of great weight, for many were often bullet proof, they were somewhat clumsily made; but the style of their ornamentation, coarse as it was, still invests them with a certain charm. A good example of such a helmet is in the
