At this link you will find "A Record of European Armour and Arms Through Seven Centuries," an exhaustively researched book complete with many photographs and illustrations, which can be read or downloaded as a PDF file or in other formats, for free (the copyright, obviously, has run out.) This is really an incredible resource - I thought I should share it.

The only thing that seems to be missing is colour :p
Great find, downloaded it and saved it, quickly skimmed through it and seems to be a great source.
Lots of imformation about each type of helm, putting this one on my list to read as soon as i have finished this 256paged book im reading now

Gentlemen:

Laking is a valuable resource in some ways, but treat it with great caution: There are lots of fakes in his pieces and there's a lot of simply incorrect material.

Maybe there is; I wasn't aware of it, in any case. But the work does contain the most thorough and detailed study of the Greenwich armours that I have ever seen. If there's a better published research of the Greenwich armours, I'd like to see it. It contains some interesting images. For example, William Somerset, Earl of Worcester's armour posed on a mannikin on horseback with an associated horse bard; also the complete armour of Sir John Smythe, also on horseback with a horse bard (today only a cuirass, tassets and burgonet of Smythe's garniture are on display at the Tower of London, if I'm not mistaken.) There's a closeup photo of Sir Henry Lee's locking gauntlet, a portrait of a Swedish nobleman wearing Lee's armour, and the Earl of Cumberland's armour posed with a sword at Abbleby Castle (before it came to the Metropolitan Museum.) It's interesting to see certain armours as they were displayed long ago, compared to how they are displayed today.

Thanks for the reminder...... as problematic as some of Laking is today, hindsight always being 20-20, it is still a foundational work. there are a few others also available online as well, see this post:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ght=laking

as for contemporary commentary on Laking's work see the comments in this thread, particularly Nathan's, which more or less sums it up well:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ght=laking

Great find! Also under the subject "Armor-History" there is the book of "Ffoulkes, Charles John" in free pdf format.

N.B.: The book you point to is the 4° volume of 5

The books are simply amazing, featuring a wealth of infos and pictures I've rarely seen.

I'm usually not so keen on reading ebook, preferring paper, but I have to say the embedded viewer is very comfortable (click read online on the left frame). This will lighten my mood during office hours for sure :)

J