The 6 1/2 Antique Arms Fair: A Virtual Fair

THE 6½ ANTIQUE ARMS FAIR A VIRTUAL FAIR

During the enforced shutdown of COVID-19 we asked the guardians of the world’s leading institutional collections of arms and armour about their beginnings, plans for the future and other interests.

Edward Impey Royal Armouries

I think I first noticed arms and armour in a booklet, which I still have somewhere, bought at Wardour Castle when I was about five which reproduced some of those wonderful 15th-century French pictures of sieges, full of armour, guns and gore. What small boy wouldn’t be interested in that? Later on I was given the Helmut Nickel’s adorable Arms and Armour Through the Ages, longstanding number one favourite book, followed by Claude Blair’s European Armour, probably my first serious one. Decades later I knew Claude a bit and was suitably awestruck. A result was several years’ worth of trying to make armour out of cardboard and string – good fun, and not unsuccessful, but as cardboard only bends in one plane, not overly convincing (maybe I’ll leave it to the Armouries – although it would be politely refused, of course). Also in and after this era, I spent a lot of time making bows (yew!) and arrows (bamboo, heads made of horseshoe nails bashed flat and trimmed. The trickiest bit being the flights), totally banned at home but encouraged by a spirited rural grandmother. Then onto crossbows, including a pistol or balestrino-like one, and not ineffective. Guns came next – tubing and pétards - this was in France – latterly firing ball bearings. Totally lethal. My father had to officially disapprove but was also keen to join in. The Gendarmerie, however, eventually showed a keen interest and said NON. Professionally my first brush with arms and armour was whilst working for Historic Royal Palaces, at the time when the Armouries was re-furbishing the displays in the White Tower, led with great imagination by Geoffrey Parnell. But working life, after HRP at English Heritage, was pretty exclusively to do with archaeology and architecture, until 2013 when the Royal Armouries was looking for a new Director General and Master – a title alone to make you bung in an application! Also of course related to the Tower, which by then I’d been obsessed with for years. I knew I couldn’t be Guy Wilson, but nevertheless persuaded them to take me on. We had a rocky time at first, but in the last few years things have really begun to look up, although COVID has of course put the brakes on so many things and institutionally, although optimistic, we are in uncharted territory.

When and how we will be able to take on our single most exciting project – the complete redisplay of the Museum in Leeds – is unclear.

As for an unrelated something, first thing that springs randomly to mind is an another obsession - with old tractors. Gripping. I’m no mechanic, but the arrival of Classic Tractor is still a high point of every month, followed by fantasies about buying a handy little fleet of Titans, Fordsons, Moguls etc.

Dr. Ă lvaro Soler del Campo Jefe de Departamento Real ArmerĂ­a, Madrid

I started studying arms and armour in 1983, when I was still finishing my university studies. At that time I was looking for a good research topic from the point of view of medieval archeology.

In that year, the Department of Islamic Archeology from the National Archaeological Museum, suggested me to study the weaponry depicted in the Spanish Mozarabic manuscripts from 10th to 11th centuries. I found it a very interesting topic and since then I have continued working on this and other periods.

I am currently working on three projects: a review of the medieval weaponry in Spain from the 14th and 15th centuries, the study of the evolution of the exhibition galleries of the Royal Armory of Madrid from 16th to 20th centuries, and last, but not least, I am also part of an interdisciplinary team for the archaeological study of the Navas de Tolosa battlefield (1212 ac.)

I am happy walking through the countryside and I enjoy Formula One since my adolescence.

The parade helmet belonging to the Emperor Charles V by Desiderius Helmschmid c.1540 (Real ArmerĂ­a.

Madrid. Cat. A151). I like it because it is a very clear reference to the imperial power in the shape of an eagle holding his coat of arms

Simon Metcalf MVO FSA The Queen’s Armourer Royal Collection Trust, UK

I am still learning and in awe of the art of the armourer. With about 12,000 objects to care for in the Royal Collection and a very small team there’s always lots to do. I am currently completing new displays at Windsor Castle, for the first time you will be able to see the Greenwich Armour of Henry Prince of Wales next to its correctly mounted exchange pieces. Work continues on AVB Nick Norman’s catalogue of European weapons in the Royal Collection and also on a major exhibition Japan: Courts and Culture which will feature amazing objects like the Armour given to James I by Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada in 1613 and the Gensuitō given to George V in 1918 by Emperor Taishō.

Tilt pieces of an Armour garniture of Henry, future Prince of Wales, for the field, tourney, tilt and barriers, Greenwich workshops under the direction of Jacob Halder about 1608. RCIN 72831 Royal Collection Trust ©H.M The Queen Elizabeth II 2020

Stefan Krause Director, Imperial Armoury Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

I started in 2008, as an intern at the Imperial Armoury. My first armour-related task was to add data to the museum’s then new collection database. Soon this was followed by a research project on the decoration of Renaissance armour. In 2010 I was awarded a Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

2013 I became Curator of the Imperial Armoury, 2018 Deputy Director and most recently, in 2020, Director.

As a PhD-student, researching German Renaissance portrait paintings, I worked as a docent at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Among others, I gave guided tours at the Imperial Armoury, for kids, for tourists, for diplomats. The more I read, the more I talked about the objects of the Armoury, the more fascinated I became. Emperor Maximilian’s late-gothic armour, Filippo Negroli’s all’antica helmet – these are the objects that fired my initial enthusiasm for arms and armour, and they still do.

The 500th anniversary of Emperor Maximilian’s death in 2019 had occupied all my attention. It saw the publication of a number of books and articles, most importantly “Medieval Games”, the monumental book on Freydal, the Emperor’s tournament book. But now, I have turned my attention to South-Eastern Europe, to the intriguing story of Skanderbeg. It is the Imperial Armoury’s helmet and sword attributed to the famed late-medieval Albanian hero Georg Kastriota called Skanderbeg that I will focus on in my next book. It will lead us deep into the wars between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, but also to the Habsburg Court, a Dutch printmaker’s workshop, the vault of an American library and the Renaissance Art Market.

The scholarly research in arms and armour can sometimes be a slightly bookish pursuit, focusing on footnotes and accession numbers, discerning joust of war from joust of peace. This calls for a counterweight, and mine is road cycling, speed and tarmac, carbon frames and jockey wheels. On my bike, on the roads around Vienna, or in the digital world of Zwift, this is where I refresh myself for more research in arms and armour.

Armour for Wilhelm von Rogendorf, Kolman Helmschmid, Augsburg, dated 1523, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Imperial Armoury, Inv.-no. A 374 (C KHM-Museumsverband)

Raphael Beuing Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

I came into touch with arms and armour via sculpture, more than 15 years ago. When studying equestrian monuments of the Italian Renaissance for my thesis, I automatically had to deal with armour as all the gentlemen immortalised on horseback were military leaders. It took me a couple of years and two different jobs, though not out of sight of arms and armour, before I got to my current position in Munich in 2012.

Unsheathing an ottoman dagger of the late 16th century is an unforgettable experience which I made on my first proper post as curator of the Treasury of the Teutonic Order in Vienna. The sheer splendour of such a piece studded with stones should convince even the most ignorant person of the beauty of arms and armour.

An article on our stunning baroque dog collars! We have just had an exhibition on dogs and humans in which these collars were on display, unearthed from our stores after long decades. There is still some work to be done on these beautiful ornaments of once beloved dogs before they hopefully will be put on show in our hunting gallery.

Due to lack of entertainment in town during the coronavirus lockdown I have made more use of my bicycle in recent weeks. This took me to several quiet and beautiful churches around Munich, places of which I haven’t been aware of before. And guess what you may find out there from time to time: tomb slabs of armoured knights!

Pierre Terjanian Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

I began to research arms and armor in 1990 when I was still studying law at the university. I entered the field as a professional in 1997 when the Philadelphia Museum of Art offered me an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship to work with the Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch Collection of arms and armor. Over the time I became associate curator of arms and armor. In 2012, I joined The Metropolitan Museum of Art as curator in the Department of Arms and Armor.

I became interested in arms and armor when I realized that there were many aspects of it that invited original research. The realization that European armor was created in different styles over time and from one region to another, combined with the potential for military funerary effigies of armored knights and documents kept in public archives to help better ground the dating and attributions of surviving works fired my initial enthusiasm. While the range of my interests and the nature of my research never ceased to expand, the detective work has been a steady motivation behind, and one of the greatest rewards for, the job.

The Met holds the major part of an unparalleled hoard of armor that was rediscovered in the nineteenth century in the former Venetian fortress of Chalcis in the Aegean. It is a key partner in and contributor to an important scientific publication that is in preparation under the direction of Dr. Nikos Kontogiannis. By bringing together contributions from specialists in different disciplines, the book will present a wealth of information on the objects as well as the contexts for their use, rediscovery, and subsequent collection history.

When I realized I wanted to become a curator of arms and armor, I asked professionals how one could enter the field. The advice I was given on one occasion was to drop that ambition and contemplate much more viable career options. I am glad I persisted in my quest!

Armour Garniture of George Clifford (1558-1605), Third Earl of Cumberland, 1586. Made under the direction of Jacob Halder. Image from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jonathan Tavares Associate Curator of Arms, Armor, and European Decorative Arts The Art Institute of Chicago I started in 2005, when I was 24, in an internship in the Arms and Armor Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Though armour has been my passion since I first visited the former Higgins Armory Museum in Massachusetts at around age seven, it was not until my Met internship that I was able to explore that passion with direction. These circumstances led me to believe in fate.

A graduate professor kindly gave me the contact information for Stuart Pyhrr, curator in charge of the Arms and Armor Department at the Met. I recall shaking with nervousness in my studio flat when calling Stuart’s office. We had a very brief conversation that led to a coffee and the remote possibility of an internship.

Stuart handed my information over to his then assistant curator, Dirk Breiding, with the idea of beginning a thorough inventory of the armour collection. Two months went by and, giving up hope, by chance I discovered an events calendar on my desk and that in an hour, Mr. Breiding was giving a tour. I rushed to the museum, anxiously hanging back to ask some poignant questions evoking the name of another mentor, Ian Eaves. This piqued Dirk’s attention, causing him to exclaim, “Who are you?” Two weeks later, we were taking inventory, unwrapping that first armour in the departmental library. In that moment I was surrounded by a mountain of knowledge that left me both exhilarated and sublimely dumbfounded. A deep friendship was also born that day with my dear colleague, Dirk. That was my break. I was there for nearly seven years.

There are a few. One is completing a collaboration with Armorer Jeff Wasson and several other artisans reproducing one of the Art Institute’s finest armours. From smelting iron ore to the etched decoration, the project has continued for four years. It was the subject of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) NOVA documentary, Secrets of the Shining Knight, but now we should turn to publishing our findings and pitfalls.

The most exciting, though daunting, future project will be producing a catalogue for the Art Institute’s Arms and Armor collection, celebrating the new displays that opened in 2017.

Currently, I am writing an essay interpreting the translation of a French 1580s manuscript for Columbia University’s Making and Knowing Project. It’s an amazing record on the trade of the furbisher or sword cutler, with recipes for bluing and varnishing sword hilts, polishing rapier blades, and descriptions of the tools of the trade. This will hopefully be available online in the coming months.

Last December my wife and I moved into our first house and now, I find myself living for weekend gardening. I see much to do and get so excited that hours pass by in an instant. The latest project has been constructing a woven wattle fence around the front yard. Pillaging from neighbourhood brush piles to make the fence has been an excellent way of getting to know people!

Dr Ralph Moffat, FSA Scot.

Curator of European Arms & Armour Glasgow Museums

It was towards the end of a doctoral research project at the Royal Armouries under the tutelage of Dr Karen Watts that I was appointed Curator of European Arms & Armour at Glasgow Museums in 2008. Glasgow Museums is a city-wide museum service that includes Kelvingrove, the Burrell Collection, and Glasgow Museums Resource Centre — a publicly-accessible storage facility.

A simple answer: my family. My father had a passion for history and folklore. Every trip away was another adventure. We’d be fighting with William Wallace, hiding in (one of many) of Robert Bruce’s Caves or behind Rob Roy’s waterfall, or perpetrating a bloody feud alongside our Moffat forebears: the Border reivers. My mum is one of these people who diligently reads every word on every sign at a castle or label in a museum. She’d always be sure to share the ‘official’ info. Having two merciless siblings I always needed my sword at hip and bow in hand!

I am extremely privileged to be involved in the redisplay of the Burrell Collection. This is a major capital project that will see a complete refurbishment of the building and novel redisplay of Sir William Burrell’s fantastic collection. In addition to the steel and iron of the arms and armour there are also many beautiful depictions in ivory, stained glass, tapestries, and alabaster. I’m also (finally) nearing completion of a medieval arms and armour sourcebook. This comprises over 100 original documents such as wills, inventories, and chronicle accounts as well as a comprehensive glossary illustrated with 40 images. It is a resource that I would have found useful when first setting out in this field. I hope that readers will be able to know their jack from their jazerant, pisan from poleyn, and even paunce-seat from their couter!

I do have an intriguing story (although it is A&A related): I was nearly murdered by Henry VIII. Get in touch and I’ll tell all ...

Dr. Tobias Capwell Curator of Arms and Armour The Wallace Collection, London

I got my first museum job at the Royal Armouries in 1995, when I was 22... but I had tried to convince the Met to hire me when I was 13; my first visit to the Met when I was four (in 1977) is probably what started it all for me.

The old mounted Stechzeug figure in the middle of the arms and armour court at the Met did it for me. That was it. Although it was mostly a modern restoration, the colour, the splendour, the huge lance, the horns crest... I wanted to be up there with him!

Well I've been trying to finish my 'Armour of the English Knight' project for twenty years. When that is finally complete, with the publication of the remaining two books (back to back in 2021, hopefully, maybe), I will at last be able to turn my attention back to getting excited about the horizon.

I've been teaching my two sons (8 and 5 years old) how to shoot the longbow and throw spears in the back garden. It turns out that archery nets are not javelin-proof.

Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Dirk Breiding Philadelphia Museum of Art

My proper start in the field I owe to Ian Eaves and Karen Watts who offered me an internship with the Royal Armouries at the Tower in the summer of 1995.

I can do no better than to paraphrase Claude Blair's well-known response to a similar question: I can't think of a time when I was not interested in arms and armour. Growing up in Germany, I played with toy knights and my parents regularly took me to castles and museums. After finishing school, I studied art history, history, and law, and began collecting books on arms and armour to specialize in the subject.

Having just published a highlights book on the arms and armor collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I am now looking forward to focus again on completing a number of smaller publication projects, notes, articles, and perhaps bulletin-length monographs. The subjects range from tomb effigies to individual elements of armour, chiefly among them the mid 14th-century bascinet that I was able to acquire for the Museum in 2017 (see image).

In addition to books on arms and armour as well as images of and information on funerary monuments, I am a fan of and collect audio books and audio plays—both in German and English - on record, tape, or CD, especially the unparalleled productions by the BBC.

Dr Jeffrey L. Forgeng Worcester Museum of Art

During the 1990s, I came across the catalogue entry for Royal Armouries manuscript I.33 in Treasures from the Tower of London. I began transcribing and translating the manuscript in my spare time, and eventually the Armouries asked me to publish it. By 1998, when the Higgins Armory Museum and WPI were looking to hire a curator/history professor, I was poised to enter the field in earnest.

Like so many of us, I had a boyhood passion for arms and armor, and when I lived near New York, visiting the armor galleries at the Met was one of my favorite weekend activities—it truly made me fall in love with museums. But of course I never imagined that it would one day be my job to study and share these objects.

We are currently finishing up the Concept Design for the new Arms and Armor galleries at the Worcester Art Museum. We have a spectacularly creative team working on this project, and in about 3-4 years I am looking forward to sharing the collection with the public in a dynamic new setting.

Curation is wonderful work, but being cooped up indoors all day, and hunching over a keyboard to churn out grant reports, can take its toll on the body. On weekends I like to pick up a trowel and spend a few hours getting my hands dirty in the garden. After nearly a decade and a half, the work has paid off in spades—the view out the window of my Covid office is extremely nourishing.

Our pilot arms and armour open storage installation

Marco Merlo Fondazione Brescia Musei

In 2004, during my graduation thesis, focused on Federico Barbarossa's wars in Italy, I started collaborating with the Academy of San Marciano. In 2005, during my PhD, with the thesis on the inscriptions on weapons and armor, I started collaborating with the Stibbert Museum and the Royal Armory of Turin. After several experiences in other universities and museums, I also specialized in restoration and from 2013 I started working at the Armory of the Bargello Museum in Florence.

I grew up in Turin and as a child my father, who did a completely different job (he is a computer scientist), took me to the Royal Armory and to the Artillery Museum: I decided there, between 5 and 6 years old, that when I grew up I would have worked with ancient weapons. My job is what I wanted to do as a child.

For this reason my enthusiasm is renewed every day.

The Marzoli Museum in Brescia is one of the most interesting collections in Italy: Luigi Marzoli was one of the most important private collectors of the 20th century, and his collection became a public museum. In recent years, the Fondazione Brescia Musei has been committed to enhancing the Museum and the Castle of Brescia, inside which the Museum is located. Unfortunately Covid-19 hit Brescia in a terrible way but, with the "wounds still open", the city is starting to restart.

The Marzoli Museum will publish, with the publisher Skira, two books: - the Guide, which wants to make the public aware of the new visit to the Marzoli Museum, inaugurated in 2018 for the Thirty Years of the Museum, during which the number of exhibits has been increased.

- the proceedings of the International Conference "The Marzoli Museum and Lombard weapons." A slightly more technical book, which collects the essays of the 4 days of the conference (15-17 November 2018), during which 21 experts addressed numerous topics related to the production of weapons in Lombardy, between the fifteenth and XVIII century, and on some important works of the Marzoli Museum, with a multidisciplinary cut that I believe will help us to look differently at some aspects of ancient weapons and the history of Brescia's weapons.

I've got a lot of them! I have done a lot of competitive sport all my life, and now that I am no longer of the age to compete, I dedicate myself a lot to good food!

Matchlock short harquebus with three rotating barrels, Northern Italy (Brescia?), c. 1550

Jeroen Punt Curator National Military Museum of the Netherlands

I started in 2003 as an employee at the Army Museum in Delft and a few years later, I became head of the Education, Events and Presentations department. As a recently graduated historian, I was full of ideological ideas and mainly wanted to focus on knowledge transfer to the general public. Between 2010 and 2014, I worked within a project team on a new Dutch National Military Museum and once again became involved in the substantive side of the museum. I discovered where my heart really lay: with the collection and research into it. With the opening of the new museum in 2014, I was appointed curator of edged weapons and armour.

When I started as a curator, I didn't immediately know where to start. I was afraid that my predecessors had already studied everything in the collection and that little remained for me. After a short orientation phase, I found out that fortunately this was not the case. I discovered that the northern Netherlands had known their own armour production for a century. I became fascinated by this and so I started my research into Dutch armour and the armour makers in the northern Netherlands. My predecessor Jan Piet Puype was an important source of inspiration. He was and still is ready with advice and assistance. In addition, H. R. Robinson's work was also an important source of inspiration. He took an important first step in research into Dutch armour. Nevertheless, many questions remained open. I hope that I will be able to answer many of them with my research.

I am currently working on a series of articles about Dutch armour and armour makers. The first article about Dutch armourers will be published after the summer break in the Journal of Arms and Armour. After that, I have three more articles planned: Dutch cavalry armour, Dutch infantry armour and plume holders on Dutch helmets. The latter seems unimportant, but proves to be quite interesting.

A curator's problem is that work and hobby are not actually separated. The danger is lurking that you also do research in your spare time. You must protect yourself against this and occasionally be able to distance yourself from your work. In my spare time, I therefore work a lot in the garden. It has a calming effect on me and allows me to think things through, so that I sometimes come to different or better insights. I also try to spend a lot of quality time with my wife and our 11-year-old son.

Peter Finer ANTIQUE ARMS AND ARMOUR T: +44 (0) 20 7839 5666 F: +44 (0) 20 7839 5777 USA/CAN: 1 800 270 7951 www.peterfiner.com

A Rare Falconer’s Hunting Bag, c. 1675 – 1750 Germany. Chamois leather, tanned leather, silk, metal, sewing yarn.

PROVENANCE Private collection, Austria Bags of this type (Jagdtaschen) are included among the traditional accoutrements of the gentleman falconers illustrated in many of the German paintings and engravings of this sport which were produced with increased proliferation from the mid-18th century onwards. Foremost among these are the superbly detailed falconry and hunting plates by Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767), which show these bags with their characteristic decorated strings worn prominently at the hip, and which continued to be published after his death by his son Martin (1730-80). Examples of Ridinger’s falconry engravings are included in the collections of the German Hunting Museum in Munich.

An 18th century chamois Jadgtasche of near-identical construction is in the von Kienbusch Collection in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Both this and the present example notably have elongated drawstrings with branched twisted ends, the strings being a feature specific to the falconry bags also seen in the Ridinger engravings. Hunting bags formed of fewer pouches and without the long drawstrings appear to have been intended for gentlemen in pursuit of hares and other land game. The bodies of these two bags under discussion are each studded with bulbous leather buttons on chamois rosettes, and the drawstrings of each are decorated identically with a series of small leather collars and with chamois rosettes. These very close similarities may reasonably suggest a common workshop or place of origin: see von Kienbusch 1963, cat. no. 755. A further example, said to be very similar to the von Kienbusch bag, is referenced by Kienbusch to James Drummond and Joseph Anderson, Ancient Scottish Weapons, 1881, pl. xxxix, nos. 1, 2.

REFERENCES Carl Otto von Kienbusch, The Kretzschmar von Kienbusch Collection of Armor and Arms, Princeton 1963 DIMENSIONS Height: 25.5 cm / 10 in

Width: 26.5 cm / 10.4 in

Patrick & Ondine Mesdagh info@patrickmestdagh.com +32 475 46 73 15

A Maori Stone Club, Patu Onewa greywacke, polished stone with biconical hole and ridged butt, of elegant proportions, the carinated tip beneath the grip pierced for a wrist thong, and flaring gracefully to a rounded edge; fine, slightly glossy dark green surface New Zealand, 19th century, This type of short-handled club (patu) features a flat elongated blade with sharp striking edge. The term patu means to strike, hit or subdue in Maori – in this case the blow administered was a sharp, horizontal thrust straight from the shoulder aimed at the enemy’s temple. Finely finished, these flat bladed weapons could be made from wood, stone, whalebone (patu paraoa) and even prestigious greenstone (mere pounamu) REFERENCES see 1979.206.1459 for a fine example in the Met’s Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection.

Patu onewa refer specifically to hand clubs carved from stone (greywacke or basalt) such as this one, which was cut and painstakingly polished with natural abrasives to achieve its smooth surface and fine lines. A single perforation at the rounded tip would have had a cord (tau) fashioned from dog skin to fasten it securely to the wrist. The rounded tip features a series of perfectly concentric grooves which yield and unfold to the base of the handle.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Te Maori, Maori Art from New Zealand Collections, exhibition catalogue, 1984 DIMENSIONS 31 cm or 12¼ inches

A Very Fine Pair of Cased Flintlock Duelling Pistols by T.J. Mortimer.

16� overall, 10� carbine bore twist octagonal barrels each engraved 'Maker to his Majesty, London' in scrolled gothic script between foliage along the top flats at the breech, copper fore-sights, case hardened breeches each engraved with martial trophies between engraved platinum lines on the top flats, platinumlined touch-holes, case hardened foliate engraved tangs each with back sight, case hardened border engraved flat bevelled detented locks each signed in part gothic script and decorated with foliage involving a martial trophy at the stepped rounded tail, engraved safety-catches, rainproof pans, and blued steel-springs each with roller, cocks decorated en suite including the top jaws. Highly figured half-stocks each with chequered rounded butt and silver fore-end cap, blued steel trigger-guards each decorated en suite with the locks on the bow and with foliate engraved pineapple shaped finial, turned blued ramrod pipes, adjustable set triggers, vacant silver escutcheons and barrel bolt escutcheons, original brass mounted ramrods. In their original brass mounted mahogany case fitted and lined in navy blue velvet with two spare mainsprings and accessories including brass mounted three way powder flask covered in red leather, steel bullet mould and brass tipped loading rod with worm, 2 spare main springs, oil bottle, wad cutter and main spring clamp. The interior of the lid with large illustrated trade label, the exterior with circular flush fitting brass carrying handle centred on a circular vacant brass escutcheon, London proof marks T.J. Mortimer, St. James's St., Maker to His Majesty, London, No. 1204, Circa 1825.

Very good condition, old rebrown to barrels, original case-hardening to locks and one trigger guard, the other trigger guard slightly more worn. Actions very crisp. Case and accessories in very good condition, case lacking a turn screw.

Thomas Jackson Mortimer was apprenticed to his father, Thomas Elsworth, in 1795. He joined his father as T. Mortimer & Son at 44 Ludgate Hill, London between 1807 and 1824. He was in business on his own account at 21 St. James's Street, London between 1818 and 1821; 38 St. James's Street between 1822 and 1824; and 34 St. James's Street between 1824 and the year of his death in 1833. Following his death his widow Elizabeth continued to reside at the same address until 1838 For the label see H. Lee Munson, The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923, 1992, pp. 278-279, pl. 459 http://www.antiquearmsandarmour.com/current-stock/flintlock-pistols/8584-a-very-fine-pair-of-casedflintlock-duelling-pistols-by-tj-mortimer/

An Important Miniature Armour For Man And Horse, by E. Granger, Paris, 19th Century Exceptional quality armour in mid 16th century style attributed to E. Granger, Paris, mid-19th Century.

Accurately modeled and articulated throughout, comprising close helmet with pivoted "bellows" visor, bevor, breast- plate, tassets, back-plate, full arm defences, including gauntlets and leg defences with broadtoed sabatons and rowel spurs. The coat made from fine mail. The horse with full body armour, consisting of a chanfron, crinet, petrayl, decorated with coats-of-arms, crupper and leather covered saddle with velvet saddle cloth edged in bullion. All parts etched, except for tassets, and with much gilding remaining in the recesses. The horseman mounted on a wooden mannequin with face made from gilt bronze. The horse made from bronze with iron horseshoes and tail made from real hair.

E. Granger was a pupil of the Ecole Royales des Arts in Chalons and worked in Paris from circa 1820 on.

From 1840 his workshop was located in the Rue de Bondy 70 (now Rue Rene Boulanger). His miniature armours were exhibited at the Exposition des Produits de l'industrie Francaise 1844 in Paris and the International Exhibition on Industry and Art 1862 in London. Cf. Nickel, Helmut " The Little Knights of the Living-room Table" in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. XXV, no. 4 December 1966, p.

182, fig. 27.

DIMENSIONS Height 16½", Length 13½"

Ayda Katti, Coorg, South Western India, 18th or 19th Century A fine example of this imposing weapon-type, an Ayda Katti, the traditional sword of the Kodavas in Coorg (the modern-day state of Karnataka).

At the base of the hilt is a wooden elliptical pommel-plate covered with red lacquer, the grip enclosed by strips of silver gilt which are each fastened in place with small bolts – a red tassel has also been attached to the pommel for suspension. The remainder of the red wooden hilt emerges through the other side of the grip and sits just below a stepped ferrule which has been closely engraved with a series of horizontal rows containing triangles in a mirrored arrangement.

In keeping with the original function of the Ayda Katti as a means for cutting through dense undergrowth (although it is unlikely our example served this purpose), the blade is essentially hatchet-shaped. A thin ricasso notched at each edge and engraved with a single beaded line continues out from the ferrule before the blade sharply widens at the base – the back edge extending horizontally before recurving inwards, whilst the front edge extends initially and then is cut back to form a short four-stepped protrusion. The greater part of the blade’s length is then of typical form, the cutting edge distinctly convex where the backedge is mostly straight before recurving and tapering towards the ricasso. Visible on one face of the blade is a stamp containing a stylised letter ‘E’, perhaps the mark of the family that was originally given this blade as part of a ceremonial gesture.

An Ayda Katti with similar decoration at the hilt is preserved in the Powys Castle and Garden in Wales as part of the National Trust Collections (Object No. NT1180585), having been accepted by HM Treasury on 21st March 1963 in lieu of tax and subsequently conveyed to National Trust ownership on 29th November 1963.

PROVENANCE The attached label reads: “Ex Lord Rolls coll.

Stratford/A August 62 £3” From this we can surmise, with other information, that the sword was in the Rolls family (Lord Charles Rolls was co-founder of the Rolls Royce car manufacturing firm) who had their family home, The Hendre, in Monmouth, Wales.

The label implies the sword was sold in August 1962 for £3, in Stratford-upon-Avon (it is worth noting that Robin Wigington, a noted arms & armour dealer, had a shop and museum in the town).

The 1962 date on the label is relevant, as a year earlier, in 1961 Lady Eleanor Shelly-Rolls died.[1] Eleanor was the sister of Lord Charles Rolls, who like his two other brothers, died leaving no children to inherit the estate, so it fell to Lady Eleanor. She also died leaving no children, and upon her death the estate passed back up the family line to the closest member of the family with surviving descendants. The Harding-Rolls branch of the family continued to live at The Hendre until 30 August 1984 when, following a failed timeshare operation, it was sold.

One might say this sword is literally the Rolls Royce of Adya Katti!

DIMENSIONS OVERALL: 540mm (21¼ inches) ________________________________________ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Shelley-Rolls

C. F. Seidler www.antique-militaria.co.uk chris@antique-militaria.co.uk

French 1st Empire naval officer’s (possibly a surgeon) sword Year 12 model, blue and gold blade, c 1800 DIMENSIONS Blade 84.5 cm

Peter Dekker peter@mandarinmansion.com www.mandarinmansion.com

A presentation katar from Sindh Dated 1832, with markings indicating it was a wedding gift presented in that year. The scabbard comes with heavy pierced silver mounts of a style seen more often on presentation pieces from the Talpur house of Sindh, who were probably the ones who commissioned and presented the piece. Wootz blade and hilt, hilt with golden damascening.

DIMENSIONS Overall length 31.8 cm.

Tony Willis Tel: + 44 (0) 7767 678958

Fine English Civil War Period Military Rapier

Stef Domoney www.AshokaArts.com info@ashokaarts.com 07870 105285 New Website Coming Soon

An unusually large and fine Caucasian Kindjal made from walrus ivory and inlaid with gold 19th century.

Probably a gift for a member of the the Bavarian Royalty.

Complete with embroidered silk belt and gilt blued-steel mounts DIMENSIONS 68 cm long.

AASN Ltd aasn.co.uk +44 7989236341

An interesting cased pair of high quality Scottish all metal percussion pistols with exquisite silver overlay marked by an Irish maker "H. Allport Cork" and stamped "42" for the iconic 42nd Highland regiment of foot which was subsequently transformed into 1st battalion of the legendary Black Watch regiment.

Circa 1860.

Fine Art Japanese Swords igor@hochmajer.uk www.hochmajer.uk

TOSHO TSUBA Japanese sword guard, Late Muromachi Period (16th Century) DIMENSIONS 81 mm x 79 mm x 3 mm

www.cesatiecesati.com +39 02 86 46 09 28

An Important Shaffron This wonderful shaffron (from the French chamfrain) - the part of a horse's armour protecting its head perfectly documents the Turkish 16th century armour, made up of several metal plates connected one another by iron mails; a light and flexible defence derived from that used by the Islamic heavy cavalry. The piece here presented consists of four elements: a central plate, two lateral ones and a small plate over the central one, all of them joined together by a thick mail of forged and individually riveted rings according to the medieval "barley grain" technique (grain d'orge).

All the plates are perforated along the edges to fix a fabric lining inside, for the comfort of the horse head.

The main plate which is shaped -as well as the two lateral ones- to allow the horse to see, has a small visor in the upper section. Under the visor it is clearly visible the Arsenal of St. Irene Hallmark - that is the one of the famous Costantinople armoury, located in a courtyard of the Topkapi Palace.

This rare mark, well-known to scholars, appears only on the arms and armours entering that armoury at the time of Sultan Selim (1512-1520), the father of Suleyman the Magnificent. The arsenal consisted of equipment for the great Ottoman army and booties from Egypt, Persia or Hungary (Grancsay 1986, p. 447). The Byzantine church of St. Irene, was the first one commissioned by Constantine in the 4th century; after 1453 it became an arsenal, during the 18th century a Museum of Antiquities and from 1946 to 1978 a Museum of Arms.

A shaffron very similar to the present one is nowadays preserved in the Topkapi Museum of Arms, another one belongs to the collections of the Metropolitan Museum in New York (inv. 36.25.506) and a third one is preserved in the Stibbert Museum in Florence (inv. 3514-3517), all three with the same hallmark. Unlike most of the shaffrons known where only the central plate has been preserved, our example has all its original elements and this completeness undoubtedly makes the present piece a particularly rare one.

Shaffron Steel Turkey (Istanbul) Early 16th century REFERENCES H. R. Robinson, Il Museo Stibbert, Milano 1967, vol I, tav. 1-6, spec. Tav. 2; L’Armeria Reale di Torino, ed. by F. Mazzini, Varese 1983 pl. 363, p. 402-403; S. Grancsay, Arms and Armor: essays by Stephen V. Grancsay from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 1920-1964, New York 1986; H. Ricketts and Ph. Missillier, Splendeur des armes orientales, Paris 1988; T. Güçkıran, Askeri Müze At Zırhları Koleksiyonu, Istanbul 2009.

DIMENSIONS 44 cm x 44 cm

Vlad Zinchenko tel +33625531421 vlad@antiquepark.eu www.antiquepark.eu

Medieval sword, Western Europe, 1400s The top of the handle is made of rock crystal. Steel guard wrapped in gold leaf

ARIAN TRADING Classic Firearms and Accessories Incorporating: ARBOUR ANTIQUES ARMS & ARMOUR

Telephone: 01844 278139 Mobile: 07768 604202 arian@ariantrading.com www.ariantrading.com

A beautiful cased percussion Park rifle, built for a boy with full silver mounts for Smiths patent caps by Samuel and Charles Smith, Princes Street Leicester Square London. Silver mounts are overall finely engraved throughout and complete with a round silver patch box. Silver hallmarks are for London, 1846, makers mark is SPM. The gun number is 5533, and there is an Indian stock number to the butt G939. The rifle has a multigrooved barrel of 100 Bore and the half stock is of birdseye Maple. It is contained within its green velvet lined mahogany case with original maker’s trade label and the full complement of accessories including bullet starter, Smiths patent nipple key, mould, flask and silk sling.

PROVENANCE The Maharaja of Jodhpur

Swords of Honour Paul Willcocks paulw@berlin.com mobile: 07720074420

Presentation sword to Captain Fane c1810 and silver-gilt medal for Bagur & Palamos see p. 81 British Naval Swords and Swordmanship by McGrath and Barton

Geoff Hobson centaur1931@aol.com

German Pappenheimer c. 1630 Very good condition DIMENSIONS 118 cm

Tel: (01367) 710241 Mobile: 07836 375931 gunpsmith@gmail.com

A fine fluted Close helmet in the Maximillian style with bellows visor, and a Kynoch ammunition advertisement, Victorian

JAPAN COURTS AND CULTURE

Featuring 25 items of arms and armour from THE ROYAL COLLECTION

Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II 2020

£35.00 | HARDBACK | ISBN 978 1 909741 68 3

www.royalcollectionshop.co.uk