Well noted, and indeed references like David Harding's four volume work on arms of the East India Company, are now priced completely out of reach of the average collector! The same is true of Christian Aries long series of books on French swords.
Mr. Hales in as long as I can remember in collecting and the study of arms, Islamic in particular, was always the 'go to' guy. I recall several issues of catalogs issued by him and Jonathan Barrett back in I think it was the 80s. Those relatively simple, but well photographed and thoroughly described catalogs have become expensive collectors items themselves today!
The reason is that even then, Robert Hales was a powerful figure in the study of these arms. Thus, I would highly recommend any reference by him!
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