Funcken Uniform books

[cdr]

Fred Funcken the illustrator of the first books on uniforms i've ever bought died this week at the age of 91. With his wife he illustrated books and articles on the soldiers of all times , middle ages, 18th century, 19th century, napoleonic wars, United states, world war one, world war two, French revolution.

Still fine books published in French, English and German

Carl

[joroas]

The first uniform books I ever bought were the Napoleonic set while on a school trip to Les Invalides when I was 13......

[Brian Smaller]

By coincidence last night I gave my daughter, who is doing French at school, one of my French language Funcken books to see if she could translate something for me that I was having trouble with. 

Funcken produced some excellent reference works. Very sad.

[15thpanzer]

Sad to hear this. Like many of us I have a number of their works on my shelf. A great inspiration. My airfix HO/OO collection as schoolboy relied heavily on their work. I could never understand the text, but a picture, well...

[Calimero]

My first uniform book was volume 2 of L'Uniformes et les Armes des Soldats de la Guerre 1914-1918... I've read it so many times that it's falling in pieces

[Conquistador]

I sold the two book set of Napoleonic uniforms several years ago to prevent myself from getting into 25+ mm figures for those wars.    It worked.  

I think that my 1/600th figures will miss it's advice but the details will be less obvious at that scale.  

Those were/are fantastic books.  

Gracias,

Glenn

[HerbyF]

I am pretty sure that my first uniform book was one of his book too. Very nice illustrations. The first army I painted was ancient Britains/Gauls based on pictures from his books. I got a lot of inspiration from his books.

[moonshado]

Sad news, though 91 is a nice age to reach. I saved newspaper round money up to buy the two volumes of the Napoleonic wars when I was 14 and they are still used 40 years later. The armies of the 19th Century and two of the volumes of the medieval ages are the only 4 books I possess that are in French.

[gringo]

very Sad.what a master he was. i remember reading a story that Liliiian
used to get annoyed with him for "muddying" the water when he used
water colours

im a lucky man as i have all their volumes i believe the original Napleonic set are so worn the yellow covers fell off from being read to death with the section on the French very grubby ..again for refernce for my Airfix and later minfigs Naps.

i Salute his memory.
regards
Ged

www.gringo40s.com
www.gringo40s.blogspot.com

[Vern]

Sad news (but a bloody good innings!).

The two volumes on 'The Lace Wars' are still my favourite uniform books, I loved the way he could introduce a little bit of humour into seemingly dry uniform plates. 

[ARKOUDAKI]

Very sad to hear this news. Mr Funcken was a talented artist who produced some great work on military uniforms. I am proud to say I have his entire series on uniforms and they are a great set...very treasured by the owner.  The Funcken's work on uniforms of the French Revolution as well as the development of the American armies are some of the best.

So is Mrs. Funcken still with us, as she was the other half of the team.

[cdr]

As far as i known Liliane Funcken is still alive. They also produced some articles in 'Uniformes' and other magazines
(Vikings, Lepanto, German hussars, German Cuirassiers, Belgians in Mexico etc.)

Carl

[Galloping Major]

Another sad loss, but leaving behind a great portfolio of work to be treasured and kept in pride of place on our book shelves.
My personal favourites are the Lace Wars pair, which I have in the English translation, bought from Terry Wise when he had his shop in Doncaster.

www.gallopingmajorwargames