Small Arms Makers is an invaluable aid to the collector of antique arms. It lists the names, locations, dates, and products of over 13,000 fabricators of small weapons: firearms, edged weapons, crossbrows, polearms, and projectiles. European marks are illustrated and identified. (American makers did not use guild marks but used their name or initials.) This book is an absolute wealth of knowledge and history on American, English and European manufacturers from the earliest days, along with their innovations and their identifying armourer's marks. Gardner also included a bibliography.
Colonel Robert E. Gardner has been collecting small arms for over forty-two years and, at the same time, studying the history of their makers and identifying marks they may have used. His own collection, an extensive one, includes a small cannon made for the Duke of Flanders in 1570, some helmets beaten by hand out of a ball of metal, from the same year, and an 1803 Spanish pistol.