A Critical Inquiry into Antient Armour, as it existed in Europe, but particularly in England, from the Norman Conquest to the reign of King Charles II: With a Glossary of Military Terms of the Middle Ages - Samuel Rush Meyrick 1824 - Robert Jennings, London - First Edition A beautifully illustrated huge three volume folio set of this landmark work.

Illustrated with three additional engraved titles and eighty engraved plates from Meyrick’s own paintings, seventy of which are hand coloured many embellished with gilt and silver, and twenty seven large hand-coloured and gilt historiated initials. Additional copies of colour plates XLV and LI laid in.

‘This most superb archeological work is animated with numerous novelties, curious and historical disquisitions, and brilliant and recondite learning... Sir Walter Scott justly describes this collection as the “incomparable armory, plates as fine as the monuments of Westminster Abbey. Really and truly the work is admirably executed, and deserves every eulogy"’. (
Edinburgh Review, quoted in Lowndes).

With the history of the wars of mankind, obviously, and from the remotest periods, it is connected; with the mythology and sacred rites of almost all nations and religions; with the rise and progress of a large portion of the arts; with questions of jurisprudence and civil polity; and with some of the most favorite amusements of all ranks in antient, as well as modern, times’. (preface).
  Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (1783-1848) studied Law at Queen's College, Oxford, practised for many years as an advocate in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts, living during this time in London, where he accumulated a magnificent collection of armour, a subject on which he was consulted by the authorities of the Tower of London and by king George IV. Having failed to purchase the ruins of Goodrich castle, near Ross-on-Wye, Meyrick bought the hill opposite and built upon it a mansion which he called Goodrich Court and in which he had rooms specially constructed to accommodate and arrange his collection of armour. His work on arms and armour had been published in three quarto volumes in 1824 - A Critical Inquiry into Antient Armour as it existed in Europe, particularly in England, from the Norman Conquest to the Reign of King Charles II. In 1828 George IV requested that Meyrick rearrange the collection at Windsor Castle, for this work and his work on the Tower of London he was knighted in 1832.

‘A serious and carefully executed text delightfully illustrated and magnificently produced’. (Riling).

Provenance: J. L. Kennedy, with his signature to pastedowns. Stamp of W.F. Greenwood, York ‘Dealers in Works of Art’ to title pages. Later from the collection of venture capitalist Charles W Newhall III sold at Christie’s in 2010

References: Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Brunet III, 1692. Lowndes IV, 1541. Riling,
Guns and Shooting: a Bibliography, 58, Riling No. 406. Hiler, Bibliography of costume, 587.

Three folio volumes (binding size 40.5x29.8cm), pp. [2] 206 [2]; [2] 297 [[5]; [4] 147 [1] [138 (’A Glossary’)] [4].
Plates collated 8/2023 - Vol.I 8 line drawings, 22 hand coloured; Vol.II 1 line drawing, 35 coloured; Vol.III 1 line drawing, 13 coloured. Total 10 line drawings, 70 hand-coloured plates.


Loose duplicate plate of Richard Duke of Gloucester (Vol.II p174 plate LI) and Charles VII with Joan of Arc (Vol.II p136 plate XLV).
  Bound in half red morocco over matching textured cloth, spines lettered and decoratively ruled in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, all trimmed.   Condition: Near fine, faint stains and toning to edges of frontispieces, occasional light spotting mostly to text leaves, generally a nice clean set, in very good bindings, wear to edges and outer hinges, staining to cloth.   Ref: 111422   Price: HK$ 22,000