Today I have passed the 30,000 mark of uploaded photos to my Flickr album Arms and Armour. The album shows collections of over 130 museums, as well as museum storages and special exhibitions of arms and armour. I still have to upload another 2,500. So in the not too distant future I hope to pass the 32,500 mark.
The photographic database is meant for my personal study. But I gladly make it available for viewing to historians, collectors, re-enactors and modern sword smiths.
Especially collectors are encouraged to view and closely study the museums collections as there is a multitude of falsifications and bad composites on the market. In fact, I always recommend not to buy any piece without a sound provenance. Even a provenance to an old collection might not be good enough. During the Victorian age (or the so called Historismus period) the demand for antique arms and armour was so high that many replicas were produced and offered for sale. Today private collectors are also lured into buying pieces that are very cleverly aged but in reality are no more than a few years old.
Also beware of auctions. Auction houses in the past, as well as those of today, want to make profit. Therefore there is no guarantee that their descriptions will be 100% accurate. You need to see and judge it for yourself or else hire an expert. And do check if you are allowed to return a lot should it turn out to be not as described.
My photograpic album can be visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98015679@N04/sets/
It is part of my web page
http://www.astronet.nl/armsandarmour
Carl Koppeschaar
