A Complete Guide to HeraldryFox-Davies, Arthur Charles
History
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles
Heraldry -- Great Britain
The barred or grilled helmet owed its introduction to tournaments with
swords and clubs, which necessitated better opportunities of vision than
the earlier tilting-helm afforded, sufficient though that was for
encounters with the tilting-spear. The earliest form of this type of helmet
will be seen in Fig. 606, which is termed a "grid-iron" helmet, developing
shortly afterwards into the form of Fig. 607, which has a lattice-work
visor. The former figure, the "grid-iron" helmet, is a {316} representation
taken from an original now in the possession of Count Hans Wilczek, of
Vienna. Fig. 607, the helmet with the latticed visor, is from an example in
the German National Museum at Nürnberg. Neither of these types of helmet
appears to have been regularly adopted into heraldic art. Indeed they are
seldom, if ever, to be found in heraldic emblazonment. For pictorial and
artistic purposes they seem to be entirely supplanted in paintings, in
seals, and in sculpture by the "grilled" helmet or "buckler." Whether this
helmet, as we find it depicted in paintings or on seals, was ever really
worn in battle or tournament seems very doubtful, and no actual instance
appears to have been preserved. On the other hand, the so-called
"Prankhelme" (pageant helmet) bucklers, frequently made of gilded leather
and other materials, are extant in some number. It is evident from their
nature, however, that they can only have been used for ceremonial or
decorative purposes.
Fig. 608 shows one of these buckled "pageant" helmets surmounted by the
crest of the Margraviate of Burgau. Fig. 609 shows another of these pageant
helmets, with the crest of Austria (ancient) or of Tyrol. These were borne,
with many others of the same character, in the pageant of the funeral
procession of the Emperor Frederick III. (IV.) in 1493. The helmets were
made of leather, and gilded, the two crests being carved out of boards and
painted. The Burgau wings, which are inclined very far forward, are: "Bendy
of six argent and gules, charged with a pale or." In their normal position
the wings are borne upright. The second crest, which is 86 cm. in height,
is black, and adorned on the outside with eared pegs 4 cm. long, from which
gold linden-leaves hang. These helmets and crests, which were formerly in
St. Stephen's Cathedral, are now in the Vienna Historical Museum.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the workmanship became
inferior, and beauty of line was no longer sought after. Shortly afterwards
helmets ceased to be worn outside the regular army, and with the subsequent
evolution of military head coverings heraldry has no concern.
As a part of a heraldic achievement the helmet is not so old as the shield.
It was not until the introduction of the crest that any one thought of
depicting a helmet with a shield.
[Illustration: FIG. 599.--Schallern (end of fifteenth century).]
[Illustration: FIG. 607.--Helmet, with Latticed Visor (end of fifteenth
century).]
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