European Hand Firearms of the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries.
By H. J. Jackson. (Hopkinson. £4 4s.)
This exquisite piece of typography and reproduction, the work of the Chiswick Press, is essentially a volume for col- lectors. There are chapters on Wheel-locks and Match-locks of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Snaphaunce and Transition Locks, the Seventeenth Century Flint-locks (with a list of European gunsmiths of the period), and several chapters on eighteenth century firearms and the period of transition from the flint to the percussion system. These are followed by a useful little paper on the care and cleaning of firearms for collectors. In addition, Mr. C. E. Whitelaw contributes a treatise on Scottish firearms. The plates, of which- there are over seventy, comprising some hundred and forty odd figures, are superb, whether considered as illus- tration of mechanism or of carving, and the collector will find them invaluable as references to type and period. There should be no difficulty in finding purchasers for this limited edition as it will be some time before this work is improved upon, either in Its- letterpress or -plates.
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