I recently received some information from a company called Uniformology in Texas. These folks have collected a huge number of uniform plates, which they reproduce for you on order. In their own words:

"Our plates are reproduced from original sources and never modern reprints of any kind. Because many of the original sources are more than 100 years old, the natural deterioration of age is sometimes evident as some grain or spotting, particularly in light areas of sky or ground. Rather than remove these we have left them as they are on the originals.

"Each plate is individually produced on the highest quality and most modern equipment. Technology allows us to remove the color casts and yellowing often caused by age. They are restored much the way that art conservators restore fine paintings."

Their collection includes the entire Uniformenkunde by Richard Knotel. This work was originally published in 26 volumes in the early 1960s, and includes 1,072 plates, each showing variants of a given country's uniform type for a period. For example, the folks at Uniformology sent me a sample page on Russian artillery, circa 1812-14. The print includes seven figures, including a gunner, NCO, drummer (2 views) and officer of foot artillery, and an officer and NCO of horse artillery. Quite useful, particularly the drummer as it shows both winter and summer variations and front and side views. Uniformology also list over 10,000 other prints covering all periods of history through the end of World War II. These include work by Myrbach, Ottenfeld, Vernet, Buquoy, J.O.B. and many others. Most are uniform plates, but many of them are battle paintings.

They have two grades of reproduction - prints on high resolution paper cost $2.75 each, on full gloss paper they are $5.50, with discounts for large orders. They sent along samples of each type of print. The high-resolution is a good print - if you just want the basic uniform information, this is probably the way to go. The full gloss paper gives very nice resolution, with the resulting print being suitable for framing (at least, I intend to frame the sample they sent me!).

For $10.00 they will send you both their catalogs (the Uniformenkunde has its own catalog, everything else is in the other one) and two sample prints, one on each medium. They can be reached at:

Uniformology
Box 81
Weatherford, TX 76086
(817) 626-0586
uniformo@aol.com