GORGET AND MENTONNIÈRE, OR BAVIER (BEVOR).
The mentonnière was used specially with the sallad, and the chin-piece fulfils the same purpose with that helmet as the bavier does with the armet; it fastens on to the breastplate by a staple and cusped catch, or goes partly under that piece. The upper portion, to cover the mouth and chin, is of laminated plates, which move up and down at pleasure, but always from below. In conjunction with the sallad, it has this advantage over the visored bassinet of allowing a free supply of air, and only required to be closed just before an onset. This piece is generally omitted in effigies, for obvious reasons; but there is an example on a brass already referred to at Qui, Cambridgeshire, of a date near the middle of the fifteenth century. The actual piece is, of course, to be seen on almost any suit of the period. There is a specimen at the Royal Artillery Institute. The portion going over the chest is, of course, a sort of gorget; but the gorget proper is the piece for the neck, going all round towards the shoulders and back, closing with sliding rivets. This piece followed the mentonnière, and was certainly not common before the beginning of the sixteenth century; but there are much earlier examples, for instance, a gorget with a turned-down collar at the throat is attributed to Albrecht Achilles of Brandenburg, 1414–86. It is a piece closely connected with “Maximilian” armour, and prevailed up to the decadence and after. We find an early instance of the plate gorget on a brass of the D’Eresby family in Spilsby Church, Lincolnshire, representing armour of a date very late in the fourteenth century—this covers a gorget of chain-mail. A brass of Sir John Fitzwaryn in Wantage Church, Berkshire, shows the plate gorget pure and simple. The date of this monument is 1414. Towards the end of the sixteenth century it was far from uncommon to find the gorget joined on to the shoulder-pieces.