The Armsurer and his Craft. By C. ffoulkes. (Methuen and
(Jo. 42s. net.)—The interest of armour is twofold : historic, as an actual record of long-past methods of fighting, and also for the sake of its wonderful craftsmanship. The problem the armourer had to solve was how to make an iron covering light enough to be worn and yet strong enough to protect the wearer. At one period in the middle of the fifteenth century the armourer added another quality, that of beauty. The impossible was achieved and the iron case moulded into an exquisite shape, based upon the essential lines of the human figure. The flowering time lasted but a short while, and soon after 1500 beauty of design was swamped in ornament, and grace was succeeded by pomposity and clumsiness. Unfortunately it is the later armour which chiefly survives, and the style of the best time has largely to be studied in pictures, though pieces of great rarity exist. Mr. ffoulkes tells us that though in England and France individual armourers of merit were found, in neither of these countries were there schools of craftsmen as in Germany and Italy. The author describes the make and use of the different varieties of military and jousting armour clearly and at reasonable length; the illustrations, too, are excellent.
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