English Civil War Artillery, 1642-1651 (New Vanguard) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

To put this review into context, I bought this book as part of my preliminary research into modelling the artillery of the English Civil War. I was therefore hoping to find a good summary of all the surviving pieces of artillery from that period that could then form the basis for truly authentic models.
The author's experience as a curator at no less than three of UK's best artillery collections suggested that this would be an excellent account based on first-hand knowledge of real pieces.

Being the only book dedicated to this specific subject (to my knowledge), it's certainly a most useful reference work, but there are elements of it that frustrate the reader and that could have been easily avoided.

Having read the book, the lasting impression you are left with is that there is very little definitive information on ECW artillery, and that pieces that can be positively identified as being of the period are very rare. In the case of the actual gun carriages, there are no surviving examples from that conflict, so every gun carriage you see is a 'best guess' reconstruction based upon various 17th century treaties and manuscripts, complete with their characteristic wood cut illustrations.

In light of this, you would have thought that citing the original sources that underpin all these reconstructions would be uppermost in the author's mind, but what we find it a very inconsistent approach to captioning and referencing.

Brian Delft's colour plates are excellent, but the captions for the first three plates offer no precedents for the pieces pictured - What is the basis for the illustration of the bronze mortar? What forms the model for the two field pieces? Which manuscripts offered the three means of transporting a gun? You can be sure that the highly experienced Delft did his research, or was given good information by the author, but none it is evident in the captions, and it is this failure to show their 'working out' that reduces the authority of the book.

Contrast this with plates E and F, where the surviving originals of all the guns depicted are cited, and you see how easy it would have been to do this across the board.
This inconsistency is a theme throughout the book - Some manuscript illustrations are attributed, some are not. Some are not even dated. The bibliography is a useful reference tool for further research, but there's no indication as to which museums/collections might hold originals you can access.

One of the worst culprits is the caption for fine 17th century model of a gun and carriage on page 37, which (being actually of the period) you would have thought was a worth its weight in gold to those wishing to create accurate scale or full-sized reconstructions. But the caption does not even say which collection it is from, what type of gun it might portray, or where it can be seen.

The most informative illustration, 'Plate D: The Saker and its component parts' is a great drawing, but your appreciation of Delft's artwork is greatly diminished by it being tightly bound across the centre fold, which does its best to swallow the image. You actually get a clearly picture of the 'character' of the piece from the preview image on the back cover. Granted, there was little alternative to printing it this way, but it is maddening to have the most useful image compromised.

The poor quality reproduction of some of the black and white photographs (not helped by them being taken in gloomy castles and gun emplacements) means there is little detailed information to be gleamed, negating the value they might have held for a modeller.

All of these issues may be the result of a limited budget, tight page count, or the inevitable publishing time constraints - But given that Osprey books are largely on very specific topics, aimed at people with a genuine interest for authenticity and detail, then any scrimping on referencing can only be viewed as self-defeating.

I would recommend this book as a good starting point for further research, but I can't help feeling that this was a missed opportunity to produce a definitive work on an important, and visually attractive aspect of the ECW.
Chris Henry has his starter for ten - I just hope someone gives him the budget and opportunity to answer the follow-up questions, and create a more comprehensively illustrated and footnoted work that truly reflects his curatorial credentials.

This book covers what to me is one of the more complicated aspects of civil war history,Artillery,Mr Henry explains in a clear, readable way the methods and organization of gunners during this conflict. Artwork and illustration is of a very high standard throughout.