Demmin Auguste. An Illustrated History of Arms and Armour from the Earliest period to the Present Time

London, George Bell and Sons Ltd, 1911. — 595 p.Al that can interest the archseologist, the historian, the artist, the soldier, and even the ordinary observer, on the progressive march and the successive development of the arms of various nations in the past centuries, has been conrlensed in the first chapter of this book in the "Abridged History of Ancient Arms," of which several extracts, more or less modified, are to be seen as headings to the subdivisions, so as to spare the reader the trouble of looking through the whole history every time that he is desirous of information on only one point. It would have been useless to describe the historical development of each kind of arm, as these will be found in the different special chapters where these arms are described in chronologic order. This chronological system is found to be the best for a book which is destined to be at the same time a guide to the people at large, and a scientific encyclopaedia to collectors, tor such repetitions as must inevitably result will contribute to facilitate study. In addition to this a special chapter describes the progressive march of the armourer's art, and gives all the iirmourers' signs and marks which it has been possible to collect; another chapter treats of the arms and alphabets which have been used in the tribunals of the free-judges (francs-juges).