In the task of writing a consecutive story, a task peculiarly difficult to one who, like myself, has not the pen of a ready writer, I have often turned for help to that accomplished antiquary, Mr. Oswald Barron. This help he has always given me most ungrudgingly, and to him I owe my rescue from many a literary tangle. Mr. Barron has also written several historical paragraphs for which I most gratefully thank him.
Again, to Mr. S. J. Whawell, my old friend of very many years' standing, there is an obligation to be acknowledged; for, whenever a controversy has arisen over the authenticity of a specimen, he has always very generously come forward as consultant and given his opinion. In such predicaments, occasionally most difficult, I have always turned to him, and his decision has ever been final; for his knowledge of our subject is never at fault. It is not too much to say that a judgement of his, passed on any European weapon or armament, is one which cannot be disputed.
Among my other friends who collect armour, no one deserves greater credit for the good work that he has accomplished than Mr. Felix Joubert, from whose collection I have been privileged to take certain illustrations for this book. Mr. Joubert is an artist to his finger tips-modelling, painting, enamelling, and, indeed, interesting himself generally in all the arts of the past. He is a kind friend, ever ready with his staff of skilled workmen to assist in the repair of a weapon or harness of plate, with which time or the ignorant hand of a restorer has dealt hardly. A very skilled fencer, he has a most intimate knowledge of all types of arms, and, as an artist, appreciates what a weapon should be.
Sir Farnham Burke, K.C.V.O., C.B., Garter King of Arms, is another collector of armour and of weapons who takes a deep interest in the subject; the frontispiece of this work is due to his generosity. Like the true collector that he is, Sir Farnham finds his chief interest in the armourer's craft to lie in the fact that armour was most beautiful in form and workmanship at the period when the armourer's mind was centred in producing the most effective defence possible for the knight in war and tournament.
To Major George Cotterell and Mr. Lewis Bettany I tender my very sincere thanks for the great assistance they have rendered me in the compilation of this work, and for the interest they have taken, I believe for my sake, in the study of armour and arms.
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