Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/245

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

more interesting category than that of the plain head-pieces of the Commonwealth soldiery. As for those blackened morions which are generally embossed on either side with fleur-de-lis, they appear to have belonged to the Civic Guard of Munich, or to regiments of pikemen who had their headquarters in that town. In this instance the fleur-de-lis seen upon them has no heraldic significance, but represents an emblem of the Virgin, to whom the town guard of Munich was dedicated. Some thirty years ago, hundreds of these helmets were purchased en bloc from the arsenal of Munich by a French dealer; while comparatively recently, a very large number of helmets of the morion and cabasset type of four distinct patterns were bought by a well-known English dealer from a town in Spain.

Fig. 1295. Morion

Of gilded copper, German, about 1610. Private Collection, England