Armorer's Punch

Armorers used heavy steel punches like this to stamp their personal marks onto finished pieces of armor as an indelible way of signing their work. This punch was made in the early to mid-20th century and was intended to falsify maker's marks on authentic but unmarked pieces of armor. It is important now as part of the history of faking. Fakes or forgeries of historical armor were being made by the late 18th century, around the same time that arms and armor first became popular as valuable and collectible antiques. At least one other armorer's punch of this type exists, now in the collection of the Royal Armouries, Leeds, which was recovered in the 1950s from the workshop of Raymond Bartel (d. 1949), armorer to William Randolph Hearst at St. Donat's Castle in Wales.