The Armour Archive

Thomas H wrote:... I can see this flying off of the shelves.

Funny thing, one copy just flew in onto my bookshelf today...

*happy dance*

KinnieKat wrote:

Thomas H wrote:Got my tracking number today so it should be here within a week i should imagine.

Kinnie, be careful or Matt will drool all over it!

He's welcome to drool over it, it's not for me.

but christmas is too far away!!!!!!!

Thanks again!

No, thank you Carlo!
It's another great book for us to enjoy and learn from, I really love it!

*does happy dance* It's here, it's here!

So tempted to buy one for myself now.

Don't worry, I'll let you look at mine.

So????

I am unable to budget for the book yet (but it WILL be mine…oh yes…it will….) However, I just haaappened to be in London last week and had some free time on my hands so of course it was off to…THE PUBS!!!! Wait, I mean…THE WALLACE! (after the pubs).

The good, free to get in! And not crowded.
The bad, 2 of the 3 European armor exhibits were closed.
The good, from the two hours I spent in just the one room and seeing some of the pieces Carlo had to work with…well…dang!
The bad, no photography allowed by the public (unless by special request/permission).
The good, I now have to go back to London when all of the exhibits are open.

One of the things that the Wallace have in the exhibit are the catalogues. Books on little stands you can wheel about that goes into a 2-4 page details explanation, details and history of each piece of armor. Very cool stuff.

Oh yea, there’s a bunch of other cool art and stuff at the Wallace too.

-Finn

Sorry Carlo, but I can't give you a review until Dec 25th when Kitty gives me my copy! If she doesn't decide to keep it for herself, she's even promised not to open it and go through it before me.

Matt

So Matt ... what is your impression?

I really like the book. His photography is superb and having closeups brings out details that would otherwise be missed.

My one BIG, I mean BIG, disapointment was that the most famous armour at the Wallace, the Gothic hoirse armour was very poorly covered. As in NOT AT ALL. I think the least they could have done was include a shot of one of the hip plates and the detail of the fluting on the pectral plates. They included an old shot of it as part of the intro but no closeups.

Mark

Mark D. Chapman wrote:I really like the book. His photography is superb and having closeups brings out details that would otherwise be missed.

My one BIG, I mean BIG, disapointment was that the most famous armour at the Wallace, the Gothic hoirse armour was very poorly covered. As in NOT AT ALL. I think the least they could have done was include a shot of one of the hip plates and the detail of the fluting on the pectral plates. They included an old shot of it as part of the intro but no closeups.

Mark

Mark, the criteria of the choice of all the objects illustrated in the book was "genuine, not composite, not altered". The reason why the A21 has not been illustrated is that it is in fact made up of different suits and some of the pieces has been altered at some point to make up the armour as it looks today.
The parts that I photographed are the only one "pure".
Maybe your disappointment has grown even more at this point!

That makes it all the better.

Thank you for taking the time to reply Kaspar. Your photography is really superb.

I appreciate the explanation and can understand the Logic.

Fortunately I was aware of the composite nature of the overall equestrian armour. The suit for the man is as you say very composit. I guess given your skill I had hoped for some good closeups of that suit even given its composit nature.

However what I was really getting at is that of the horse armour the pectral and hip plates seem to be intact. It was these that I was hoping to see included in the book as there are only 4 gothic horse armours in existance.

With all this said, as you can tell I am fond of high gothic armour, The book is well worth the price and I recommend it to anyone that can get one.

Mark

My hungry mind sucked up all the pictures in my book.
Now all the pages are blank.

Perhaps I should hammer metal now?

Hal

kaspar wrote:Mark, the criteria of the choice of all the objects illustrated in the book was "genuine, not composite, not altered". The reason why the A21 has not been illustrated is that it is in fact made up of different suits and some of the pieces has been altered at some point to make up the armour as it looks today.

A quick note ... when I mentioned the A21 I meant the actual armour for the man only. The armour for the horse is on the other hand quite a thing!

To correct some missinformation: The gothic horse armour ( not the man's) is associated, with the pectral and crupper plates in original condition and only a few minor pieces are missing The only part of it that includes 19th-century additions or modifications is the shaffron, which is actually featured in the book.

As you can see I posted this message without seeing Kaspar's reply as we are in agreement.

This was checked with Dr. Capwell at the Wallace Collection.

In addition to the book we should all look forward to the Wallace Collection catalog DVD that should be released in 2010.

P.S. For those who are interested the other 3 Gothic horse armours are at:
The Royal Armouries, Leeds
The Musee de la Arme, Paris
The National German Historical Museum, Berlin

Regards,
Mark

Just a quick note that there are only 150 copies left of "The Wallace Collection".

http://www.hansprunner.com/#/the_wallace_collection

Also "The Churburg Armoury" is about to start running low.

http://www.hansprunner.com/#/the_churburg_armoury