1-217-420 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Masque of Charles VI of France, c1480, (1910). Veils are distended by wires, with knights disguised in close-fitting hairy garments and masks. Thinking to heighten the effect, two courtiers set the pseudo-skins on fire - two of the sufferers plunge into a bath and one is saved by a lady who envelopes him in her robe. Four died. The broad bands encircling the faces of the ladies and falling on their shoulders is the inception of the subsequent pyramidal headdress, and the frontlets are well-defined. Illustration from British Costume during 19 Centuries by Mrs Charles H Ashdown, (London, 1910).