Customer Reviews

A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times (Dover Military History, Weapons, Armor)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This notorious work (originally written in the 1920's) has probably done more to retard the accurate presentation and study of arms & armor than any other single work. Repeatedly referenced and re-referenced over and over, this huge book is an outdated and inaccurate resource. Despite its length, coverage, and many rare photos of beautiful weapons, it is a greatly flawed and full of errors. It reflects a lot of just plain wrong and even completely fictional information. Avoid it in favor of more modern refernce works!

This eccentric collection of arms and armour descriptions began as Stone's personal glossary and progressed into the seminal work of his time. Despite its random and too often erroneous misconceptions (the man couldn't figure out how double mail was made or what it was even though he had seen it on several occasions) it offers an ecclectic smattering of the arms and armour Stone encountered during his lifetime. Read with caution, this Glossary proves to be a valuable resource to the arms and armour scholar.

Despite past "killer" reviews, it is a vital work: easy to use and comprehensive. It is advised however not for the novice because of scattered errors and imagionary information. One must use it along with other, refined works and judge carefully the details.

Over the many years I have used Stone's Glossary as a reference, I have seldom been disappointed, but then I don't ask too much of it either. Keeping in mind the era in which it was compiled and the biases thereof, I have little difficulty extracting useful information from it when needed. There are many modern references which are more accurate, and certainly the study of arms and armour has produced more informative works. There are few that rival this work in detail of scope, however. Those which cast as broad a cultural net have fewer examples and entries, while those that are more detailed seldom have nearly as many examples from so wide an area.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone researching the era for any kind of period fiction or screenplay, especially anything dealing with the height and decline of the British Colonial Empire.

For the author's supposed fixation on 'Oriental' weaponry, he covers absolutely nothing in regards to Chinese weapons. One picture caption talks about a Japanese chain weapon "Above an unnamed Chinese weapon." The weapon that is 'unnamed' is a wind and fire wheel, much like the indian chakram, but a very popular wepaon nontheless.

His coverage of Indian, Indonesean and Japanese weapons is acceptable, but his coverage of Chinese wepaons, a very significant field as far as warfare is concerned, is lousey at best. "Of all places places at all times" isn't an accurate description by a long shot, but it's an easy reference for people looking into european weapons for certain. The fact that it was written originally in the 20s makes for a lack of up-to-date info, but again, it's an easy to use reference

This book contains a staggering selection of photos and general information on arms and armor from around the world. Japanese, Chinese, African, South American, European and Middle Eastern for a start. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Stone's interest and personal collection are all Eastern and Oriental pieces. Because of this it's a very good refernce for Asian armor and weapons. His examples of Western pieces are from museums, primarily the Met in New York, and other American museums and collections. He makes many errors on European pieces of armor. If your interest is Asian, it's a good book, but it's only adequate as a general reference.

Offers numerous short entries on weapons and armor. Gives good coverage of both European and Oriental (Western/Eastern) styles. Overall a great book for the armor/weapon enthusiast.

An essential reference book for the collector. Stone identifies and describes an enormous number of edged weapons (as well as guns and armor). There are a few mistakes which are corrected in books published later, but this one is a must have for your library.

This book contains great descriptions of more types of weapons than I knew existed. Great for anyone looking to learn more about warfare, and how it was fought throughout history. The pictures are quite extensive as well, with multiple examples of each type of weapon.