This publication is a guide to the armor and arms in the City Art Museum
of St. Louis and, incidentally, a very elementary introduction to the
history of arms and armor in general. The major part of the Museum’s
collection, comprising the European armor and arms of the fifteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is displayed in a single armor
gallery. Other specimens are shown with the exhibition of their own
special cultures.
The City Art Museum is, as its name implies, restricted to objects of
art, to objects which, independently of their usefulness, are more or
less beautiful by the intention of their makers. There are numerous
items in the vast range of armor and arms which do not fill this
requirement, and are purely utilitarian. The Museum possesses specimens
of some of these. As they are not considered objects of art they are not
on exhibition, but have been assembled in a special study collection
where they can be seen on application to the Curator.
When individual specimens are illustrated, they are given, in the list
of illustrations, their identifying Museum serial numbers. If a reader
fails to find on exhibition any such specimen in which he is interested,
he has only to ask for it by this serial number at the information desk.
If its place of exhibition has been changed he will be told where to
find it; if for any reason it has been temporarily removed from
exhibition, arrangements will be made, if possible, for him to see it.
The subject of armor and arms is neither short nor simple, and it is
quite impossible, in a publication the size of this one, to do more than
give the barest kind of outline. Many points of interest are not
discussed in detail, some technical terms are unexplained, many
fascinating items are not mentioned at all. If the subject interests
you, you will find helpful information in the books listed on page 43,
most of which will be available at any public library. If specific
questions concerning armor and arms are addressed to the Curator, City
Art Museum, Forest Park, St. Louis 5, Missouri, accompanied by a
self-addressed, stamped envelope, they will be answered as far as
practicable, but research problems cannot be undertaken.