Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/170

of age, was stamped with an armourer's mark, a star within a shield, on the lower part of the visor. Now just such another bascinet helmet (Fig. 1567), which turned out to be a clever fabrication, had been offered to and purchased by the author some two years previously, a helmet coated with exactly the same rusting, of the same admirable make, and stamped with the same armourer's mark, which, however, was placed low down on the skull-piece. In the same year another bascinet exactly similar was again on the London market (Fig. 1568); this one also was impressed with an armourer's mark of the same character, a mark appearing on the visor, and placed precisely as in the case of the Paris helmet. It is not difficult to imagine the inference drawn from this discovery. A thorough knowledge in all points of the bascinet helmet which we had, to our misfortune, found out to be false, helped fairly easily to determine the origin of all the other pieces in this remarkable collection; for on minute inspection they were found to be all of the same make and to be all oxidized by the same means, though in some cases the oxidization was carried to a greater extent than in others. All the pieces, whether sword blade or defensive plate, had the same admirable patine of age, all were beautifully made, and in their construction all gave evidence of the maker's genuine knowledge of the true specimens.

Fig. 1571. Bascinet of the early XIVth century

A Paris forgery of about 1890-95. Now in a private collection, New York

Only after a lapse of many years have we been able to obtain photographs of some of them (Figs. 1569 and 1570). But to-day their make is known and