Apart from his work at Christie's he accomplished much. At the age of twenty-two he had written his catalogue of the Wallace Collection of arms and armour, a work which is as much a milestone on the road of research into armour as are Meyrick's "Critical Inquiry into Antient Armour," or De Cosson and Burges' "Helmets and Mail." Before he was thirty he had published his book on the armoury at Malta. In 1904 appeared his monograph on the Windsor armoury, of which he held in the Royal Household the office of Keeper. He found time to contribute many articles to periodicals on his subject, to write monographs on the Sèvres china and furniture in Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and during the last years of his life he arranged and organized the London Museum.
He died at the age of forty-four, having married in 1898 Beatrice Ida, the daughter of the late Mr. Charles Mylne Barker.
He would often say that he worked hard because his work was his play; but he never shunned dull and monotonous drudgery, which must have been very tedious to a man of his artistic temperament. Success came to him because of his untiring industry, aided by his natural gift of faultless taste in all that related to art. By nature he was not a literary man and was no great reader. Yet he has left this history of armour, and there is hardly a page which does not contain some description or reflection of his own.
He called his book a "picture book." His appreciation of line and colour led him always to wish to exemplify what he said by taking an object of art in his hand or making a drawing to represent it. So it was with his book; he wished to illustrate everything about which he wrote, and, as is seen in these volumes, he was skilful himself with both pencil and brush.[1]
He would frequently say that he desired to make a beginning with the classification of armour into schools, which others could work upon. His book shows how he has tried to carry out this idea.
Sir Guy Laking was always ready to learn, and as he had no vanity and still less jealousy it was easy for others to share their knowledge with him. This attractive feature of his character contributed to his success. His aim was ever to become more proficient in the subjects which so absorbed his mind, and to aid those who had the
- ↑ Nearly all the initial letters to the chapters were designed by himself. See also for his other drawings, vol. i, pp. 19, 130, 280, 282; vol. ii, pp. 51, 142.
