Great book recommendation!

[Gerhard von Liebau]

Medieval Arms and Armor, A Pictorial Archive. It's by Dr. J. H. Hefner-Alteneck of Munich, who died in 1903, the same year as the book's first publishing in Germany, it seems.

The book is a large collection of the Doctor's sketches of arms and armor from many collections he examined. Some of the pieces are known today, and others are completely new to me! A couple of the famous fakes (like that barrel helm with the eyes, Monty-Pythonish) are shown, as well as the visored barbute that people ask about now and then...

It's got hundreds of sketches, and LOTS of 14th and 15th century effigy pictures, too! He didn't take photographs due to the quality of them at the time, as he wrote in the forward.

ISBN is 0-486-43740-X

I found it randomly in Borders, and picked it up for $15. His writing is obviously aged, but there are many interesting comments. The sketches are great, though!

-Gerhard-