2 A Viking Sword of Frankish Type, the Hilt Damascened in Silver 9 th – early 10 th century
3 An Early ‘Gothic’ Shaffron by the ‘Master A’ c. 1460
4 A Rare Pair of Saddle Swipe-Guards (Dilgen ) for use in the ‘Joust of War’ (Rennen ) c. 1500 – 1510
5 A Two Hand Sword of Knightly Quality or Montante c. 1500 – 1530
6 An Etching with Engraving by Daniel Hopfer of Kunz von der Rosen, Court Jester of Emperor Maximillian I c. 1515
7 A Memorial Shield or Totenschilde for Michel Hess zum Freijen Thurn dated 1547
8 A Bronze Cannon attributed to the Foundries of Hans Christoph Löffler c. 1550
9 A Breastplate for Foot or Light Calvary Armour c. 1550 – 60
10 A Glaive Made for the Guard of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II dated 1564
11 A Two-Handed Bearing Sword, Carried by a Soldier of the State Guard of the Duke of Brunswick dated 1573
12 A Bronze Cannon for Light Field or Ceremonial Use dated 1574
13 A Comb Morion of the Trabantenleibgarde of the PrinceElectors of Saxony c. 1580 – 1600
14 A Half-Armour of Blued Steel, da Piede, Etched, Engraved and Gilt c. 1580 – 1600
15 A North German State Bearing Sword from the Hanoverian Royal Collections dated 1599
16 A Small Wheel-lock Holster Pistol Almost Certainly a Young Noble of the Electoral Court c. 1600
17 A State Parade Halberd of the Personal Bodyguard of Elector Christian II of Saxony c. 1600
18 A State Parade Halberd of the Personal Bodyguard of Elector Christian II of Saxony c. 1600
19 A Pair of Spanish Bronze Cannon Barrels c. 1600
20 A Wheel-lock Holster Pistol bearing the Personal Arms of Archduke Matthias of Austria c. 1608 – 12
21 A Swept-Hilt Rapier with Silver-Encrusted Hilt c. 1610
22 A Processional Partisan of the Bodyguard of Count Paris Von Lodron, Prince Archbishop of Salzburg dated 1620
23 A Riding Sword with SilverEncrusted Hilt of Distinguished Quality
c. 1625 – 35
24 A Rare Embossed Iron Figural Target for the Quintain Tournament 17th – 18 th century
25 An Historic Bronze 6-Pdr ‘Drake’ Cast for the Rotterdam Admiralty by Cornelis Ouderogge dated 1658
26 A Rare Battery of Three Saluting Cannon, made for a Member of the Prominent Danish Bielcke Family dated 1678
27 A Magnificent and Rare Royal British or Hanoverian Huntsman’s Satchel c. 1714 – 27
28 A Large Masterpiece Chest or Door Lock c. 1720
29 A Brace of French Double-Barrelled Silver-Mounted Flintlock Sporting Guns by Blanchard dated 1825
A Corinthian Helmet
early 6th century B.C.
Greece. Bronze
19.1 cm / 7.5 in (height)
Provenance
Charles Bremner Hogg Jackson Collection pre 1979
Bequeathed in 1979 to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History; Sold by the Smithsonian Institute at Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, 15th October 1996. Lot 3000
Private collection, France
Of Corinthian type. Hammered from a single sheet of bronze with slightly flaring lower rim. Swept neck and cheeks, the upper oculars and nasal reinforced. Lower edge on either side pierced with a single circular hole. The form, lack of lining pins and the shallow bowl suggest the early date.
A Viking Sword of Frankish Type, the Hilt Damascened
in Silver
mid-9 th – early 10 th
century
Frankish, northwestern Europe. Steel, soft iron, silver 100 cm / 39.4 in (overall length)
Provenance
Private collection, Germany
While current scholarship has largely softened the 19th century view of the Vikings as a hoard of bloodthirsty and merciless heathen raiders, it is important to keep in mind that the extraordinary geographical reach of their culture was not achieved and maintained over the span of four centuries by trade and shrewd manipulation alone. Within Viking societal structure, the sword was a greatly revered and expensive possession, naturally the more so in the case of decorated hilts such as the present one. Ownership was limited to the upper tier of warriors, all others being armed solely with axes, knives and spears.
Modern knowledge of Viking swords comes not only from the finds made in warrior graves, but also from river or lake finds, the result of losses and of swords used as votive offerings. The find sites frequently reveal other dateable artefacts and the location of the settlements and larger battles are themselves dateable through the early chronicles.
The expansion of Viking settlements into Russia and the Ukraine would appear to have been for the most part a peaceful process, although the evidence of the numerous Viking warrior graves within the settled eastern regions certainly suggests the need for visible fighting capability.
Contrast with this the Viking raids and larger scale invasions of England and the Frankish lands of northwestern Europe. Having demonstrated their bloody supremacy over the populace, periods of relative peace would then be extorted under threat of continued violence. Contrary to earlier belief, however, the centuries of Viking aggression were not wholly rewarded by Viking supremacy, evidence the early 11th century mass grave of decapitated Scandinavian warriors unearthed in Weymouth, on the south-west coast of England, and their defeat at Stanford Bridge in 1066.
Again, contrary to popular expectation, a large proportion of the swords used by the Scandinavian Vikings were in fact acquired from the Franks both by trade or plunder.
The present sword is a fine Frankish example, despite the 9th century Frankish royal edict stating that their superior blades should not be acquired for Viking use, under pain of death.
Relating to the present sword, the hilt comprises a lower guard or crosspiece and a pommel of twopart construction, its lower part forming the upper guard. The upper part of the pommel is formed as a relatively low dome cut over the top and over both sides with four segmental flutes, these correspond with five well-defined nodules, of which the middle one is the largest. This type of nodular formation is a feature of Frankish sword hilts, in turn descended from the hilts of the Carolingian period (ended AD 887). The nodules of pommels on swords of 10th century Scandinavian origin tend to be fewer and of a far greater globular prominence.
The lower guard shares the robust proportions and flat-sided shape of the upper guard, is boat-shaped in plan with pointed tips, and is of a slightly greater width so that its ends project beyond the ends of the upper guard. This last feature is seen very similarly in the 9th century Carolingian hilt of a Viking sword from near Kilmainham, Dublin (National Museum of Ireland).
The Kilmainham hilt also retains traces of the same vertical style of extremely close-set fine silver wire damascening, which is preserved to a much more significant degree on the present hilt.
The present lower guard and the two parts of the pommel are decorated over their principal surfaces with what would have been in effect a silver-plated finish. This would be achieved by the process of hammering the fine silver wire over a delicately incised pattern of extremely close-set vertical lines. The process of hammering would not only make the silver adhere to the iron surface, but would spread the silver so that the resulting surface would have a covering of largely uninterrupted silver. Small areas of this intended effect remain intact on the present hilt.
The present blade is sufficiently long to be used by a horseman, is relatively slender, tapers to a point, and is formed with a fuller running almost to its point on both sides. The blade shows small traces of pattern welding, including a chevron or herringbone pattern immediately below the hilt. Characteristic of many Frankish blades, a series of boldly cut characters are visible on both sides under photographic studio conditions. These originally would have formed a name inlaid in contrasting soft iron, probably the Frankish name ‘VLFBERHT’, or some near-abstract abbreviation.
Judging from the prevalence of the name ‘VLFBERHT’ and its derivations found across a wide geographic and date spread of Viking blades, it would appear to
have originally been a brand name, probably denoting a high level of quality, which later became ubiquitous. A comprehensive collation of inlaid characters of the type found on the present blade is included in the typological survey of Viking swords found in Germany, by A. Geibig and published in 1991.
The construction and decoration of the present hilt would appear to belong to one of a number of variants or sub-types of non-Scandinavian origin all ascribed to the 9th and earlier part of the 10th century. In a range of features it compares with a number of other western European finds; among these are a sword found in the river Meuse near Aalburg in the Netherlands, ascribed to circa AD 750-850, now preserved in the Rijksmuseum.
The silver decoration of the present hilt is remarkably well preserved for an excavated find. It can also be seen from small areas on the hilt that the incised close-set linear pattern was originally intended to be concealed beneath an uninterrupted sheetlike surface of silver damascene, in what will have been a dazzling display, the incised lines being purely the means by which the silver could adhere to the iron. Another good example of a Viking hilt similarly damascened to achieve this finish is in the Schweizerischen Landesmuseum in Zurich (LM 860).
Illustration extracted from Jan Petersen’s Typology of Viking swords, still considered the seminal study. The present hilt and blade conform with Petersen’s Type K, which he ascribes to the 9th century, and is a variant falling most closely between the sword illustrated on the left and that on the right-hand side of the image.
An Early ‘Gothic’ Shaffron by the ‘Master A’ c. 1460
Northern Italy, Milan. Steel. Some repairs
47 cm / 18.5 in (on mount)
Provenance
Private collection, Australia
Our 2010 catalogue included an Italian gothic shaffron which compares extremely closely with the example now at the centre of discussion. The production date of circa 1460 ascribed to the first, on the basis of its commonality with a few other early shaffrons (mostly Italian and outlined below), is equally applied to this present shaffron. The more remarkable, however, is that each of these two shaffrons is struck identically with the marks of the armourer referred to as the ‘Master A’, an armourer accredited with working in Milan.
In the previous catalogue commentary, that first shaffron was said to be the only early defence of its kind, bar one in the Churburg armoury, remaining in private hands; we were naturally then unaware of the distant existence in Australia of the present example, but as an unrecorded fresh discovery this present shaffron is no less extraordinary for its great rarity and quality.
Both of these shaffrons belong to a very small surviving group dateable within the period 1450-80, of which two salient earliest examples are in Vienna. The first of these is in the City Museum (Inv. 505), forming an element of a unique Habsburg full horse armour of circa 1450-60, struck with the armourer’s marks of the Master Pier Inocenzo da Faerno of Milan. The second is in the Imperial Leibrüstkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (A 187), unmarked but again ascribed to Milan, circa 1450-60.
The early group of shaffrons now referred to are chiefly characterised by their boxed and medially ridged one-piece construction, with cut-outs for the ears and raised flanges guarding the eyes. In consideration of the first of the two Vienna shaffrons, while these features are true in the classification the shape of its main plate in general, this does in fact have the addition of separate plates guarding the eyes and ears, together with separate plates at the sides and at the leading end of the muzzle. The second Vienna shaffron more fully resembles the two ‘Master A’ examples on which we are focussed, with its simple cut-outs for the ears, but is again a variation in having standing eye-guards constructed separately.
Other surviving shaffrons belonging to the same stylistic group are in the celebrated historic armoury at Schloss Churburg (CH S55), in The Philadelphia Museum of Art (acc. 1977-167-266), in the Musée de l’armée, Paris (Inv. PO.2374) and in The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (M.11-1945).
(The examples in Schloss Churburg and Paris each bear the marks of the Milanese Master Pier Inocenzo da Faerno, in common with the shaffron in the Vienna City Museum).
While conforming closely to the two principal shaffrons of this discussion, all of these four comparable examples differ through the addition of chevron patterns of broad flutes over their lower halves, after the German fashion; this enrichment is a departure from the graceful elegance of pure Italian gothic design, as exemplified by the two shaffrons from the workshop of the ‘Master A’.
While the first three of these related examples are doubtless Italian, they display the Italian contemporary taste for the fluted armour of Innsbruck and southern Germany (called ‘alla tedesca’); the Cambridge shaffron, while belonging to this comparable Italian group, is in fact ascribed to southern Germany, circa 1480-90.
An Italian gothic shaffron in The Philadelphia Museum of Art, not fluted and of slender boxed form, may also be classified within this comparable group (acc. 1977167-264). This is tentatively ascribed to a possible Tuscan workshop, circa 1460-80, the armourer’s marks A P are unattributed.
Returning to the present shaffron, although the maker, referred to as the ‘Master A’, has not so far been identified within contemporary records, it can safely be assumed that he, like Pier Innocenzo da Faerno, worked in Milan, then Europe’s foremost centre for the production of armour.
The comparable shaffron in The Philadelphia Museum of Art, struck three times with the maker’s mark A P .
Other types of armour also bear the marks of the ‘Master A’: for example, two open-faced ‘Venetian’ sallets, one in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (cat. no. C 1634), the other in the Collezione Odescalchi, Rome (Inv. 797).
The requirement in battle to defend the heads of horses is first mentioned by Robert Wace in his Roman du Rou of 1160-74. It was the function of the mounted knights to force openings in the opposing ranks which could then be exploited by men-atarms on foot. Quite obviously, the success of a mounted charge would depend on the survival of the horses involved. Today, examples of shaffrons from the second half of the 16th century are relatively abundant, the best of these having been retained as wall trophies or in the safe preservation of historic armouries. Prior that period, however, the surviving numbers decrease sharply, and are close to nonexistent in private ownership within the esteemed gothic period of armour.
As stated earlier in this commentary, each of our shaffrons ascribed to the ‘Master A’ has the chief constructional characteristics of the outlined early group. They are formed of a single plate, with rounded cut-outs for the ears and eyes, the edges of these parts are finished with inward turns, and the eyes are protected by strongly-defined raised flanges.
Another identifying feature is the pronounced angular boxed contour of each, most evident above and below the eye flanges, together with a raised and strongly defined medial ridge running over the greater part of their respective heights. These features combine to accentuate the very rare and highly desirable ‘gothic character’ of each of these examples.
The present shaffron is struck twice above the right eye-guard with the armourer’s mark, a Lombardic letter A enclosed within an orb surmounted by a cross.
The present shaffron differs very slightly from the one previously sold, most noticeably in that the eye flanges are formed with a subsidiary raised contour running around the base of each (in a similar manner to the
decorative subsidiary borders of the arm-openings on some Italian breast-plates of the period), and that its full-length medial ridge is progressively drawn-up to a conspicuously greater swell at the centre. As with the first, the piece currently held is pierced for the attachment of a poll-plate, but differs in having no provision for either an escutcheon or plume-holder. A further difference exists in the elegant sharp point of the outer edge of the muzzle, this instead of the relatively blunt form in the first of the two shaffrons (the first additionally degraded by corrosion).
The present shaffron has an outer surface cleaned bright over light pitting and has three internally patched and rivetted repairs. This exterior finish and the manner of the repairs are notable in that they typify the restoration undertaken in the 1920’s-40’s among the gothic armour hoard removed from the armoury of the Knights of St. John at Rhodes. It is of interest that the contemporary chevron-fluted shaffron in Philadelphia is recorded as coming from Bashford Dean’s acquisitions from Rhodes (acc. 1977-167266, referred to herein), perhaps a provenance not unreasonably shared by the present shaffron.
the ‘Joust of War’ (Rennen )
c. 1500 – 1510
Provenance
Possibly the Armoury of the Court of the Emperor Maximilian I Private collection, Austria
The German tourney course with sharp lances known as the Rennen (the mock ‘joust of war’), had evolved in the mid-15th century (from its first mention in 1436) and over successive decades existed in ever more numerous versions, as dictated by their differing objectives and rules, but all of these were run in the Lists without a tilt or barrier separating the riders. The contests were fast-moving (Rennen translates as ‘run’ or ‘race’), warlike in character and unfailingly spectacular. Among the more frequently practiced Rennen courses as many as seven eventual types were in fact fought without leg armour, other than tassets defending the thighs, and in some configurations a Rennzeug (Rennen armour) comprised the torso, head and arm portions only. Only a few exceptions such as the Feldrennen or Kampfrennen existed, in which reinforced field armour with full leg defences was worn.
The danger of jousting without a dividing tilt was to some degree the increased exposure to the opposing sharp lance (the specialist armour provided good protection for the upper body, and the lance-points were often purposefully biased in order to deflect). The far greater danger in fact lay in the possibility of the opponent’s horse passing too narrowly, seriously injuring the legs and perhaps the horse of the oncoming rider. This danger was not confined to the
on-coming rider’s left side (the side intended to receive the lance impact) since a horse may startle and mistakenly bolt down the right side also.
To address this in the Rennen fought without leg armour, after about 1460 pairs of graze shields were suspended from the saddle, hung at a level covering the thighs and knees. Initially probably made of either hardened leather or wood, by about 1480-85 these had developed as steel ovoid or rounded shields referred to as ‘Streiftartschen’ (derived from the German ‘streifen’, to graze, known in English only by their misnomer ‘tilting sockets’). Several examples dating from circa 1485 survive in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, including a single one commissioned by the emperor in 1485 from the court armourer Lorenz Helmschmid of Augsburg (Leibrüstkammer B 11).
By about 1490-1500 the relatively flat Streiftartsche had evolved to a shape better fitting the thigh and the knee, and in this ergonomic form were referred to as ‘Dilgen’ (sing. Dilge) within the early 16th century.
As previously, Dilgen such as the present pair were constructed to be suspended on either side of the saddle, but now to sit broadly over the thighs and knees. In this more compact size and ergonomic
Joust of War between Christoph Lamberger and Freydal (Maximilian himself), from a plate in ‘Freydal’, circa 1512-15. Note the separately worn Dilgen remaining suspended in place.
shape the present examples illustrate the optimum point in the development of this type of armour. Notably these were not elements of body armour attached to the rider; as if verification of this were needed, contemporary ‘tournament books’ (the superb miniatures of Maximilian’s ‘Freydal’ for example) include multiple illustrated dramatic records of competitors in one or other form of the Rennen hurled rearward out of the saddle by the impact of the opponent’s lance, while their Dilgen remain in the correctly suspended position at the saddle.
It would appear that surviving examples of Dilgen are limited to those with historic connection to the Habsburg imperial court, seat of the foremost exponent and patron of the tournament, the Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519, King of the Romans from 1486, Holy Roman Emperor from 1508).
Several surviving pairs of Dilgen in museum collections compare closely with the present pair under discussion, sharing not only the distinctive ergonomic form of the type in general, but close similarities in their embossed and fluted decoration also.
One such example is the pair forming a part of the Rennzeug made in about 1494, displayed in the Royal Armouries Leeds (II. 167 n-m). This pair belong to one of several armours of the Rennzeug type known to have been commissioned by the
Emperor Maximilian I, for his own use and that of his guests. Originally in the former imperial collection, this armour and its Dilgen were deaccessioned by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in about 1935. The complete set was subsequently included in an auction held by Galerie Fischer in Zurich and acquired by William Randolf Hearst; the armour was in turn purchased by the Royal Armouries in 1952.
These Dilgen now in the Royal Armouries share with the present pair an inverted arc of three flutes embossed immediately beneath the upper border, and below this an embossed radiating design of the so-called ‘wolf’s teeth’ pattern. The latter feature was popular across a range of high-quality armour produced in Augsburg and Innsbruck in the late 15th and early 16th century, with significant examples being created under Habsburg court patronage. Further examples of Dilgen were also produced in the workshops at Landshut, while latterly (circa 1530-40) in either Nuremburg or Saxony also (see Leibrüstkammer B 137b).
The present examples primarily differ from the above referenced pair in that they are smaller, but also that they are additionally embossed with a six-pointed star over the knee. This may be a decorative feature, or plausibly an heraldic emblem central to the coatof-arms of the original owner.
The borders surrounding the present Dilgen are studded with brass-capped lining rivets and retain fragments of the original lining-straps on the insides.
Another pair, ascribed to Southern Germany, circa 1500, again in the Leibrüstkammer Vienna (B 174c) is closely related both to the present pair and to the pair in the Royal Armouries; these are once again characterised by their pronounced ergonomic shape and repeat the broad band of ‘wolf’s teeth’ ornament embossed across the central area. Another particular feature of these, and existing also in the present Dilgen, is the strong protective raised incised cabled flange which is rivetted about the upper edge of the thigh. This would presumably have been intended to prevent a stray lance point from deflecting up the thigh.
Another example from the same work of 1512-15.
Another pair in the Vienna Leibrüstkammer (B 16a) and again comparable to those under discussion, is ascribed to circa 1515 and was made for the emperor by Konrad Seusenhofer, founder in 1504 of the imperial armour workshops in Innsbruck.
A further pair of Dilgen is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (M.557, 557a-1927). This pair is ascribed to circa 1500 and once again provides close comparison with present examples. In common with the present pair and some others in Vienna these are unmarked; again, as in the present instance, these nonetheless adhere firmly to the recognised period styles of Augsburg and Innsbruck workshops. The armour catalogue entry (no. 3a) also refers to a single comparable piece in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris (No. G. 535).
The embossed ‘wolf’s teeth’ pattern referred to above is prominent within a range of South German armour produced within this brief period. A few examples include the visor brow of a sallet made for the emperor by Lorenz Helmschmid, circa 1495 (Leibrüstkammer A 110); the visor of a close helmet for a boy, possibly Innsbruck, circa 1505, in The Philadelphia Museum of Art (1977- 167-81); the horse armour of Georg von Stubenberg-Wurmberg, attributed to the Hapsburg court armourer Konrad Seusenhofer of Innsbruck, circa 1505-10, removed to the Landeszueghaus collection in Graz (57.1); and the Innsbruck globose cuirass, circa 1510, in the Royal Armouries, Leeds (III. 1246).
As far as can reasonably be determined, the present pair are possibly unique in private ownership. The numbers of surviving Dilgen were understandably depleted by successive fashionable developments in the joust, leading naturally to the redundancy of this type of armour and it being discarded from noble armouries throughout the territories of The Holy Roman Empire. One known exception exists within the historic von Matsch / von Trapp armoury at Schloss Churburg in the Tyrol, in the form of a pair of Streiftartschen, mentioned previously as the forerunners of Dilgen, made by the Habsburg court armourer Adrian Treitz (Treytz) of Mülau, near Innsbruck.
One of the pair of dilgen in Vienna (B 174c) referenced above.
A Two Hand Sword of Knightly Quality or Montante
c. 1500 – 1530
Spain, Toledo. Steel, wood 158 cm / 62.2 in (overall length)
Provenance
The Gozena Collection, Seville, until 1895. Acquired by the pre-eminent collector Charles Alexander, Baron de Cosson (1846-1929)
Sold Sotheby & Co., The Very Choice Collection of Armour and Weapons of the late Baron C.A. de Cosson, 14th May 1929, lot 89.
William Randolph Hearst for £ 78
Private collection, United States
Finely balanced and proportioned for two-hand combat in the field or in the tournament lists, this sword is among the finest and best-preserved fighting swords from the early 16th century to come to the market in very many years. Spanish swords of this period are rare, exceptionally so in private ownership.
The ricasso struck with a series of Spanish bladesmith’s small marks matching front and rear, a triangular arrangement of the monogrammed letters I S set on their side, together with a letter T beneath the point of the triangle, presumably for ‘Toledo’.
A comparable but lesser quality example, ascribed to Venice, circa 1520, is in the Museo Bardini, Florence (BD 524). Another, with a closely comparable blade and ascribed to circa 1550-1600, is in The Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. 1916.1509).
An Etching with Engraving by Daniel Hopfer (1470-1536) of Kunz von der Rosen, Court Jester of Emperor Maximillian I.
From the collection of Friedrich August II, King of Saxony (1797-1854) with his collector’s mark c. 1515
Germany, Kaufbeuren. Etching with Engraving, framed 70 cm x 56 cm / 27 x 22 in
Provenance
From the collection of Friedrich August II, King of Saxony (1797-1854), with his collector’s mark, Lugt 971, on the original light blue support sheet.
Private collection, United States
Daniel Hopfer began his artistic career as an armourer, an Augsburg specialty, but sometime before 1513 he began to experiment with making etching plates on iron, probably armour sheets, for printing images. Hopfer was a very considerable draftsman and was broad-ranging in his subjectmatter. He made versions of other graphic works of the period, including works by Albrecht Dürer, Jan Swart van Groeningen, Nicoletto da Modena and Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, among others, but the etchings of his own designs constitute his most important works. The etching of Kunz von der Rosen is his undoubted masterpiece; it must have created a sensation, as it was copied very frequently.
Kunz von der Rosen (c. 1470-1519) was the ‘Court Jester’ and an extremely close confidant of the Emperor. This portrait shows von der Rosen as a soldier, dressed in a fashionable landsknecht tunic, holding a massive sword. The frequent reference to him as a court jester, should not in this case refer to a clown-like persona, but rather to von der Rosen as a plain-spoken military man.
A
Memorial Shield or Totenschilde for Michel Hess zum Freijen Thurn
dated 1547
Austria, Tyrol. Limewood with gilding and polychromy 103 cm / 40.5 in (diameter)
Provenance
Kloster Muhlbach, Puster Valley
Dr. Albert Figdor, Vienna, until 1930; his sale, Paul Cassirer Berlin, 29-30 September 1930, lot 560
Oskar Bondy, Vienna; seized and designated for the Fiihrerrnuseum, Linz, 4 July 1938, no. 1499
stored in the mines at Altaussee, Austria, where discovered by the Allies in 1946; restituted to the heirs of Oskar Bondy, before August 1948
Rudolf Kremayr, Vienna, until 1989, and thence by descent
Literature
C. Lichte and H. Meurer, Die rnittelalterlichen Skulpturen, vol ii, Stein- und Holzskulpturen 1400-1530 Ulm und siidliches Schwaben, cat. Landesmuseum Wiirttemberg, 2007, pp. 101-103, no. 54
This magnificent octagonal commemorative shield was carved in the tradition of memorial reliefs known as Totenschilde (literally ‘death shields’) for Kloster Muhlbach before becoming a part of the Figdor collection in Vienna. Elaborate funerary sculptures such as this example flourished in the southern German speaking region particularly in the 15th and 16th centuries, though their origins stretch back to the 12th century, when shields or helmets of fallen knights would be suspended on church walls to memorialise the dead helmet or other device, and framed by a dedicatory inscription, as is the case with the present example.
The shield when displayed in the collection of Dr Albert Figdor, prior to its sale in Vienna, 1930.
A Bronze Cannon attributed to the Foundries of Hans Christoph Löffler
c. 1550
Austria or Bohemia. Bronze. The touch hole cover is a restoration.
54.9 cm / 21.6 in (overall length)
Provenance
Sotheby & Co., 15th May 1972, lot 117
Private collection, United States
Cast with a plaquette of ‘Fortuna’ over the middle of the chase, modelled after an original design by Hans Sebald Beham of Nuremberg. Cast with a further pair of small rising birds flanking the raised vent, and the latter fitted with hinged decorated cover (an expert replacement modelled on a Löffler original).
A Breastplate for Foot or Light
Calvary Armour
c. 1550 – 60
Northern Italy, probably Brescia. Steel, copper alloy, gold
41.5 cm × 35 cm / 16.3 in × 13.7 in
Provenance
Possibly included in the removal of arms and armour from the armoury of The Order of the Knights of St. John, Valetta, Malta, during either the French occupation of 1798-1800, or when under British governance within the first half of the 19 th century.
This breastplate was certainly made for wear by an officer of an elite body of troops, possibly those of The Order of the Knights of St. John, or alternatively the armed retinue of a high-ranking nobleman, or perhaps those forming a city guard.
Placed on the present breastplate as if suspended from the embossed scrolls is an heraldic Cross Moline, serving both to identify the allegiance of the wearer and to act as a Christian talisman.
A Glaive Made for the Guard of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II dated 1564
Germany. Steel and wood
250 cm / 98.5 in (overall length)
Provenance
The armouries of the guard of Emperor Maximilian II, the Hofburg, Vienna
Private collection, United States
Aslender vertical panel along the lower edge carries the motto of Maximilian II:
‘DEUS PROVIDEBIT’ (‘GOD WILL PROVIDE’)
A Two-Handed Bearing Sword, Carried by a Soldier of the State Guard of the Duke
of Brunswick dated 1573
Germany. Steel, wood, leather 200 cm / 78.7 in (overall length)
Provenance
Historic Collections of the Dukes of Brunswick successively at Schloss Blankenburg and Schloss Marienburg
The pommel pierced with a central circular hole around which is engraved a band enclosing the letters, ‘O.H.B.M.N.M.D.S.L.V.E.’
‘O Herr Behüt Mir Nicht Mehr Denn Seel Leib Und Ehre’:
‘Oh Lord protect only my Soul Life and Honour’
A Bronze Cannon for Light Field or Ceremonial Use
dated 1574
South Germany, Bronze 138 cm / 54.3 in (length of barrel)
Provenance
Private collection, Europe
Ordinary of arms, with a relief ribband scroll above, the scroll cast with the abbreviated inscription ‘V.L.Z.P’ dividing the two-part date ‘1574’. The underside of the reinforce with a painted inventory number, ‘W 371’.
A Comb Morion of the Trabantenleibgarde of the Prince-Electors of Saxony
c. 1580 – 1600
Germany, Dresden or Nuremberg workshops. Steel, copper alloy, gold, leather, textile 29 cm × 22 cm / 11.4 in × 8.6 in
Provenance
The Dresden armouries of the Prince-Electors of Saxony. Most probably included in the transfer to the Königliche Historisches Museum Dresden in 1831/2.Subsequently included in one of the series of officially directed dispersals from the collection which took place from the mid-19 th century and thereafter. Two Nuremberg examples from the same series, near-identical to this one, are preserved in the Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Inv.-Nr. N 111, N 113a)
Dr. Justin G. Stein collection, United States Ray Petry collection, United States
Comb morions of this series were worn by both the mounted and foot contingents of the elite guard of the Saxon electors. Contemporary paintings and prints show the guard resplendent in gold and black uniforms and equipped with etched and gilt comb morions to match. Many of these helmets were subsequently polished bright. The sole known dated example is dated 1568 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989. 288), for a member of the guard of the Elector August I (r.1553-86). These morions continued to be used and perhaps added to within the successive reigns of the Electors Christian I (r.158691) and Christian II. In keeping with all examples from the series, their etched bands of scrollwork develop to form cartouches suspending the Roman Heroes Mucius Scaevola and Marcus Curtius in Selfsacrifice, respectively over the sides of the skull, each an inspirational subject naturally appropriate to the troops of the guard. In a similar manner, the Saxon ducal arms and those of the Saxon Electoral Office, the Hereditary Archmarshalship of the Holy Roman Empire, are suspended over the sides of the comb.
Detail from a contemporary illustration of Musketeers of the Trabantenleibgarde of the Prince Elector Johann Georg I, parading at the Dresden Fastnacht Foot Tournament of 1614. Note the continued wear of etched and gilt comb morions of the present type, although those in the illustration appear to have been polished bright.
A Half-Armour of Blued Steel, da Piede,
Etched, Engraved and Gilt
c. 1580 – 1600
Northern Italy, Brescia or Milan. Steel, gold, leather, textile Restoration to the blueing. The leathers and piccadills are modern.
87.5 cm × 72 cm / 34.3 in × 28.3 in (on mount)
Provenance
Private collection, USA
The half-length configuration of this armour was best suited to foot combat in late 16th century warfare. The new widespread use of military firearms now made agility in the field a defensive requirement, rendering cumbersome leg defences redundant. Italian decorated armours such as this one are frequently identified with the elite small bodies of troops which formed the bodyguard of politically significant noblemen and senior clergy. The openfaced helmet, properly described in this instance a ‘morione aguzzo’ or pointed morion, was the preferred head defence for field combat by the close of the 16th century. The present example is notably elegant and richly ornamented with etched and gilt linear bands of warrior figures and trophies-of-war against a ground of scrollwork and mythical grotesques. The body of the armour is decorated in the more open incised
designs which emerged in north Italian armour after about 1560, in parallel with armour decorated with the more often observed bands of etching. Armour decorated with incised flowing symmetrical patterns of foliage and plain broad gilt bands, such as we see here, was also the style worn by the Vatican Papal Guard in the latter decades of the 16th century. A particularly distinctive feature of the present armour is the Christian iconography incised and gilt over each of the lower-cannons of the arm defences. This would suggest probable wear by a member of a guard, or armed retainer, in the service of a monastic or otherwise religious body. The letters ‘I O H’ are incised above, which may be interpreted as the abbreviated Latin name ‘JOHANNES’ (John), very likely a reference to St. John The Evangelist.
A North German State Bearing Sword
from the Hanoverian Royal Collections dated 1599
Germany, Brunswick. Steel, leather and wood 189 cm / 74.4 in (overall length)
Provenance
The historic armouries of the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, successively at Schloss Cumberland, Schloss Blankenburg and thence to Schloss Marienburg, 1945-2005
A Small Wheel-lock Holster Pistol
Almost Certainly a Young Noble of the Electoral Court
c. 1600
Germany, Dresden. Iron, gilt-brass, fruitwood and staghorn
33 cm / 13 in (overall length)
Provenance
The former armouries of the Prince Electors of Saxony, Dresden
The Antique Firearms Collection of Arthur G. Cummer, Michigan (1873-1943), Sotheby & Co., London, part IV, 12 th October 1970, lot 77, sold £ 7,500
Private collection, USA
The decorative treatments and high-quality finish of the barrel and the lock are each typical of Dresden workmanship at the turn of the 17th century, a period in which the lavish patronage of the Electoral court had ensured Dresden gun-makers a level of distinction within the German lands paralleled only by the Munich makers to the Dukes of Bavaria. The small proportions are in keeping with this pistol’s intended use by a boy or young adolescent. Comparable fullsized pistols and guns made for the Electors, their courtiers and elite retainers are now preserved in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; the museum, however, no longer possesses any wheel-lock firearms from the original Electoral armouries made for the children of the court and barely a handful from the 17th century in general are known to have ever come to the international art market.
A State Parade Halberd of the Personal Bodyguard of Elector Christian II
of Saxony
c. 1600
Germany, Dresden. Steel, gold, wood
238 cm / 93.7 in (overall length)
Provenance
The Saxon Electoral Armouries at Dresden
Private collection, Europe
Private collection, United States
The oval cartouche depicts the Electoral Arms of Saxony on one side and the crossed swords of the Archmarshalship.
A State Parade Halberd of the Personal Bodyguard of Elector Christian II
of Saxony
c. 1600
Germany, Dresden. Steel, gold, wood
259 cm / 102 in (overall length)
Provenance
The Saxon Electoral Armouries at Dresden
Private collection, Europe
Private collection, United States
The oval cartouche depicts the Electoral Arms of Saxony on one side and the crossed swords of the Archmarshalship.
A Pair of Spanish Bronze Cannon Barrels
c. 1600
Spain, Bronze. Later touch hole covers 101.5 cm / 40 in (length of each barrel)
Provenance
The Duke of Lerma (born 1552 – died 1625) Private collection, United Kingdom
Ashield on each first reinforce contains the arms of the Duke of Lerma beneath a ducal coronet.
A Wheel-lock Holster Pistol bearing the Personal Arms of Archduke Matthias of Austria, King of Hungary and of Bohemia, later Holy Roman Emperor (1612-19)
The Stock involving a Concealed Extension to the Butt, possibly a Unique Development
c. 1608 – 12
Germany. Steel, fruitwood, staghorn
60 cm / 23.6 in (overall length)
Provenance
Christie’s (London), 15 July 1999, lot 255
This pistol will have been made expressly for Archduke Matthais of Austria, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and brother of his successor, the Emperor Rudolf II. The pommel of the stock is inset with a roundel engraved with the personal quartered arms of the Archduke Matthias: on the in-escutcheon the Bindenschild of Austria impaling Burgundy ancient, together with additional quartering for the period 1608-1612, during which he was also Habsburg ruler of the Kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia.
Under Rudolf II the Habsburg court was moved from Vienna to Prague; this pistol was likely taken into the imperial armouries there and eventually into the court armouries in Vienna.
Archduke Matthias succeeded his brother as Holy Roman Emperor on 13th June 1612. At the point of his succession his coat-of-arms changed, to involve the additional quarterings of arms of the wider territories of the empire. Matthias reigned as Holy Roman Emperor until his death in Vienna on 20th March 1619.
With these preceding dates of Matthias’s archduchy in mind, the pistol is in the first instance unusual in being stylistically anachronistic, that is when viewed against the rapid advancements and changing fashions in German gunmaking within the early 17th century. The construction of the lock and the configuration of the pistol butt and its pommel are all quite rooted in the period circa 1575-80. The pistol butt and its distinctively shaped pommel are in fact related to the stocks of a significant series of both belt and holster pistols predominantly with Augsburg barrels, removed from the historic Geneva city arsenal and now in the Museum of Art and History, Geneva. Among the Geneva series are several pistols with pommels which are integral to the stocks, a notably unusual feature shared by the present pistol (for example, inv. A 174, A 41, A 49, A 48).
In support of the historical extended use of the earlier type of lock, a known strong precedent exists in another partly anachronistic German wheellock firearm, dated 1605.
In the example of this rifle (bearing the owner’s arms of von Hatstein zu Weilbach), the lock and its component parts are of the same 16th century type existing on the pistol under discussion. Each include the salient early feature of a domed iron wheel-cover; the lock is undoubtedly original to the rifle (The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acc. 2240-1855).
Matthias, Archduke of Austria, together with his arms for the period 16081612 (but excluding the in-escutcheon quartering for Burgundy Ancient).
The stock of the present pistol is lavishly decorated over its length with white staghorn inlay, making an attractive contrast with the warm tones of the fruitwood. The inlaid patterns are noticeably more in keeping with an early 17th century origin. In this respect the inlay differs considerably from the mass of ballflower scrollwork and often coarsely drawn larger engraved plaques which form the basis of many German inlaid stocks in the latter decades of the 16th century.
In the present instance the horn inlay is dominated by neat rows of small engraved expanded flowerheads alternating with leaf clusters, strung on tightly symmetrical arabesque arrangements of very slender tendrils, on a ground of pellets again sown in symmetry, and all ordered within plain narrow segmental lines. Positioned within this plan are larger finely engraved plaques inspired by published designs for Rollwerk and grotesques conventional to the period. These comprise three plaques forming a sophisticated Rollwek design about the barrel tang, two addorsed pairs of monsters with scrolling bodies opposite the lock, and corresponding single monsters flanking the ramrod aperture.
The most striking technical feature of this pistol is a concealed extension of the butt running from behind the barrel tang, flush-fitted into its spine and the pommel and released by a small spring catch above the pommel roundel.
The left side of the extension is fitted with a springloaded wooden fillet preventing its accidental closure when the extension is raised. The extension and fillet when deployed form a means of holding the butt to the cheek, a device probably intended to improve aim when shooting from the saddle. In view of the possibly unique nature of the invention it would seem to have attracted little popularity.
A Swept-Hilt Rapier with Silver-Encrusted Hilt c. 1610
Germany. Steel, silver and wood 120 cm / 47.5 in (overall length)
Provenance
Private collection, USA
Private collection of the former chairman of The Royal Armouries, Leeds
Silver-encrusted decoration involving winged cherubs’ heads of the kind found on the hilt of our rapier is in fact a relatively common feature of high-quality English swords of the early seventeenth century, believed in some cases to have been made by the royal sword cutlers Thomas Cheshire, Nathaniel Mathew and Robert South of London. Such decoration was nevertheless popular throughout much of northern Europe. It is found for example on the hilt of a German rapier of about 1610 in the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds (inv. No. ix. 877), as well as on another of the same date and origin in the Collezione Odescalchi, Rome (inv. No. 415).
The blade which bears the mark of an orb and cross, commonly found on the works of the sword cutlers of the north Rhine-Westphalian city of Solingen, then Europe’s leading producers of sword blades.
Their Latin, however, seems not to have matched their metalworking skills. The inscriptions can be seen as a paraphrasing of the last two lines of the Te Deum:
‘In te, Domine, speravi non confundar in aeternum’ (In you, Lord, I have hoped may I never be put to shame)
A Processional Partisan of the Bodyguard of Count Paris Von Lodron,
Prince Archbishop of Salzburg dated 1620
Germany, Bavaria. Steel, wood 225 cm / 88.5 in Provenance
Armee Museum Munich, Keasbey Collection until 1925, Joe Kindig II Collection
Paris, Graf von Lodron (b.1586, ruled 1619-53) served his predecessor Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, when Prince-Archbishop, as his provost and president of the archbishop’s chamber. Paris, Graf Lodron is celebrated for taking up the path established by Markus Sittikus and leading Salzburg to peace and prosperity during the central European Thirty Years War (1618-48). In this period of violent conflict the remainder of the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire were devastated by the wholesale persecution of regional populations, famine, plague and consequential economic ruin. For this achievement he is known as ‘pater patriae’ : ‘father of the fatherland’.
In contrast to the neighbouring war, Paris founded Salzburg university (now called Paris Lodron University) in 1622. He also oversaw the completion of the cathedral and its exquisite interior furnishing.
With an eye to the security of Salzburg Graf Lodron established a militia of 4,800 men and travelled with a personal guard of 30 richly uniformed men armed with partisans (of the present type). He went to considerable lengths also to build up the city defences, establishing five large bastions around the city, smoothing the rock-face of the Mönchsberg for use as natural defence and expanding the great Hohensalzburg castle with the most modern defence technology.
Another example of a Salzburg partisan from this series is in the Philadelphia Art Museum (Kienbusch cat. no. 587).
The Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical principality and a state of The Holy Roman Empire. Under the rule of the Dukes of Bavaria in 739 the Salzburg diocese was founded as a bishopric and then raised to an archbishopric in 798. It comprised the secular territory ruled by the Archbishops of Salzburg and its capital was naturally the city from which it took its name, later forever dominated by the great Hohensalzburg fortress. The heads of the Salzburg church first proclaimed themselves prince-archbishops in 1213, at the accession of Eberhard II von Truchsees, a Hereditary Prince of The Empire. Independent from Bavaria since the late 14th century, the rule of the Prince-Archbishops continued until 1803, when the archbishopric was secularised by Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1809 the Salzburg principality again fell under Bavarian subjugation as a consequence of Austria’s defeat at the battle of Wagram in that year. Under the terms of The Treaty of Munich in 1816 the Salzburg territories were given up by the Kingdom of Bavaria and annexed by Austria, with the exceptions of Rupertigau and Berchtesgaden, which remained with Bavaria.
DESCRIPTION:
The head formed with a broad blade tapering very slightly towards a spear point, cut on both sides with a pair of full-length fullers divided by a medial ridge, and below with a pair of crescentic flukes rising to up-turned points, their upper and lower edges interrupted at their respective roots by partannular piercings. On a moulded baluster neck with etched octagonal socket extending to form a pair of iron straps. The head etched on both sides with a central panel filled with a cartouche framing the arms of Paris, Graf von Lodron quartered with those of the Archbishopric of Salzburg in chief, a cardinals’ hat above, involving two arrangements each of six tassels, and all within voided borders. The flanking flukes decorated symmetrically with etched scrolling tendril patterns, the flukes carrying on both sides the two-part date ‘16’ and ‘20’ within their respective etched designs, the base of the blade decorated on both sides with an etched foliated panel filled with a differing scrollwork pattern, and the etching set comprehensively against a contrasting blackened granular ground. On its original octagonal hardwood haft, the lower portion expertly restored.
A Riding Sword with Silver-Encrusted Hilt of Distinguished Quality
c. 1625 – 35
Germany. Steel, silver, wood 110 cm / 43.3 in (overall length)
Provenance
Ancestral collection, Sweden
Both practical and supremely elegant, riding swords with rapier hilts sharing the constructional style of the present example would seem to have been popular among senior officers in the Swedish service during the Thirty Years War (1618-48). This vogue probably radiated from members of the royal circle of King Gustavus Adolphus (r. 1611-32), whose surviving personal weapons also reveal a preference for this style. The hilt of the king’s silver-encrusted rapier not only shares the typological characteristics of the present hilt, but ause of conspicuously naturalistic flowers, similar to those within the silver decoration of the present hilt; this rapier from the royal wardrobe is preserved in the Livrustkammaren, Stockholm (inv. 1845).
The exceptional quality of this hilt has the added dimension of historic interest arising from its ancestral Swedish ownership. The original owner would undoubtedly have been a member of the Swedish nobility. With that perhaps, it is reasonable to suppose he was engaged within the tumultuous period of Swedish military campaigning across northern and central Europe. Few 17th century silver-encrusted hilts remain in this little-used state, the present hilt comparing in this respect with the silver-encrusted hilts of five rapiers and two of the daggers in the James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Another silver-encrusted rapier with a pommel closely related to the present example was formerly in the collection of Lord Astor of Hever.
A Rare Embossed Iron
Figural Target for the Quintain Tournament
17th – 18 th century
Northern Europe or Scandinavia. Iron, oil-based pigments
95 cm × 44 cm / 37.4 in × 17.3 in (on mount)
Provenance
Private collection, France
The medieval knightly practice of ‘Running at the Quintain’ was revived as an essential element of the 17th century Carousel, this being the final developmental phase of the tournament (with the taste for risking serious injury or even accidental death now gone). In the Carousel, riders from royal and noble houses competed, organised into variously themed teams each referred to as a quadrille. These Carousel themes were taken to extremes of elaboration, the subjects frequently along the lines of allegorical contests of nations, fairy tales, exotic hunts or glorious tales from history or the classical world, complete with musicians, appropriate scenery and sumptuous costumes for the participants. The cost of staging these extravaganzas was naturally considerable, the Carousel being generally (though not exclusively) reserved to provide fitting emphasis to the importance of a diplomatic event, a marriage alliance or the birth of an heir to a ruling house.
The Quintain itself was either a detached head or more usually a half-figure target, such as the present example, invariably taking the form of the perennial enemies of western culture, either a Turkish or Moorish warrior, and set up to pivot on a pedestal.
The Carousel rider was required to break his lightweight lance against the front or centre of the target figure; failure to place an accurate central strike would cause the figure to swing around sharply and strike the rider with a mock sword. Today, surviving examples barely exist beyond the few in museum collections (one figural Quintain is in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin; another, the full-length figure of a Moor, circa 1685, is in the Tøjhusmuseum, Copenhagen, Inv. Q2).
The present example comprises a head and torso formed of front and rear halves, of thin sheet iron embossed with naturalistic facial and anatomical relief detail. The facial features conform to the historical conventions of the Turk’s mask, complete with bushy eyebrows, moustache and beard. The figure retains much early painted finish, an off-white or pale cream for the flesh enhanced by blackened detail. The nose and the brow show evidence of several historic impacts, most likely from lance points. Variation in the condition of the surviving paint on the torso below the neck is an indication of the figure having once been dressed in a textile costume, a feature frequently observed in period illustrations.
The development of the Quintain course can be traced in a clear line back to its original use as a simple means of instructing young squires in the knightly arts of field combat, later encompassing tournament combats also. A superb medieval graphic example is found in the marginal illustrations of the mid-14th century ‘Romance of Alexander’, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Successive centuries saw the rise of the tournament as a means of displaying personal and political prowess, and running at the Quintain provided an ideally entertaining tournament event. Another historically notable record of the Quintain is included among the illustrations in ‘Freydal’, the part-autobiographical magnum opus chronicling the many tournaments of the Emperor Maximilian I, created circa 1512-15.
A notable historic relationship may also be drawn between the embossed and painted features of the present Quintain (of the 17th or 18th century) and the series of helmet visors also embossed and painted in the manner of Turks and Moors, made for wear in the grand Hussar tournaments of the Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, over the period 1548-59. It is estimated that perhaps 24 of these were produced; examples are preserved at Schloss Ambras in the Tyrol and two, of circa 1557, are in the former imperial armoury of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Inv. B 62; B 69).
By the early decades of the 17th century Running at the Quintain had completed its transition away from knightly instruction, and from the formerly important Jousts and mêlées of the previous age. By this period the primary intention of the Quintain course was as a means of displaying courtly equitation, and often set to music. The Turkish and Moorish pastiches of the targets now provided exotic historical flavour to this competition ‘fought’ between the richly costumed and fancifully armoured quadrilles of the Carousel.
The 17th century wooden figural target for the Quintain in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, mentioned above.
The Carousel, with its inherent Quintain course, was the natural preserve of the royal courts of Europe, notably together with those of Denmark and Sweden. The Carousel was fully-fledged by the mid-17th century, in parallel with the strengthened influence of the Spanish riding schools and the near-total demise of the heavily armoured tournaments.
The benchmark for the wild fiscal excesses of the Carousel was not surprisingly set by the 25-year old Louis XIV of France, ever ambitious to outshine the predominant Habsburg Imperial court. In 1612 the grand Carousel entitled ‘Roman des Chevaliers de la Gloire’ had marked the double betrothals of Louis XIII and his sister; in the series of engravings published in 1623 as a record of the proceedings, Louis is shown attacking a figural Quintain.
In June 1662, however, Louis XIV outdid this with his ‘Course de testes et de bague, faittes par le Roy et par les Princes et Seigneurs de sa cour’, held in Paris in honour of the birth of the Dauphin Louis, his heir to the throne. The sumptuous two-day tournament involved 1,297 participants, of which 655 were horsemen; the King himself led one of the five quadrilles, wearing a gold-leaf silver helmet, gold and silver embroidered robes and the caparison of his horse studded with diamonds. His retinue were no less attired for the combats. Following the magnificent opening procession, the entire first day was devoted to Tilting at the Turk’s Head and to Running at the Quintain.
Two years later a similar event, ‘Les plaisirs de l’Isle enchantée’ (a tribute to Mademoiselle de la Vallière, the official royal mistress) became the first major festivity to be held at the new Palace of Versailles. Further great Carousels took place at Versailles under Louis XIV, in 1668 and 1674. An illustrated record of the event of 1662 survives in the form of an album commissioned by the king, 300 copies of which were published in 1670 for pan-European distribution. By this means the Carousel and its Quintain course were fashionably enshrined in court protocol throughout Europe, and with particular enthusiasm in the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden.
One of a series of paintings of circa 1690, illustrating the Carousel of Christian V, King of Denmark and Norway; this one demonstrates jousting at the Quintain. From the Danish Royal Collections at Rosenborg, Copenhagen (inv. 7.298).
In 1709 and 1719 Augustus II ‘The Strong’ of Saxony held his own spectacular Carousels in Dresden. The most dazzling of these being that of 1709, from 26 May-2 July, to honour his visiting cousin Frederick IV of Denmark. A Turk’s head from a tilting course of this Carousel, of painted papier mâché, is preserved in the Armoury of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden (inv. nr. P351).
Within the context of the long-lived popularity of Carousel tournaments, use of the figural Quintain was maintained for the greater part of 18th century. In August 1785, Gustav III of Sweden, an unashamed admirer of Louis XIV, presented his Carousel ‘L’Entreprise de la Forêt enchantée’ (‘The invasion of the enchanted forest’). Organised and devised by the king, the festivity was contested over six days in the grounds of the royal palace of Drottningholm, and was said to be the most impressive of all Gustav III’s tournaments; typically, no expense being spared on the costumes for 300 persons and on the painted scenery. A contemporary in ink wash drawing of the occasion by Louis Jean Desprez shows a quadrille riding at the Quintain figures (Uppsala University Library, Inv. 31412).
Evidence of the astonishing longevity of the royal Carousel in Denmark exists in the target heads of a Turk and a Moor, ascribed to circa 1830, now in the Tøjhusmuseum, Copenhagen.
Detail from the coloured etching of the Quintain course at the Carousel tournament held at the Swedish Royal Palace of Drottingholm in 1785, referenced above. Here in the centre ground are two turbaned figural Quintains set back-to-back, each is formed as an anatomical headed torso with textile costume and carries a mock shield and sword. Note the fanciful costumes of the two jousting figures and that they are armed with light short lances aimed at the heads of the Quintains.
An Historic Bronze 6-Pdr ‘Drake’ Cast for the Rotterdam Admiralty by Cornelis Ouderogge, recovered from the site of the Battle of Lowestoft fought on 13 th June 1665 dated 1658
The Netherlands, Rotterdam. Bronze 202 cm / 79.5 in (barrel length)
Provenance
Recovered from the wreck of ‘De Eendracht’ (73 guns), the flagship of Lieutenant-Admiral van Wassenaer, Lord Obdam, which exploded in action against ‘The Royal Charles’ during the Battle of Lowestoft, a decisive naval action of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The wreck site is protected by law and is under the management of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.
Private collection, The Netherlands
The Battle of Lowestoft, 1665, etching by Thomas Doesburgh, 1690-92. In the foreground the powder magazine of the Dutch Flagship Eendracht explodes. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
This finely preserved gun was cast for the Admiralty of Rotterdam, known also as the Admiralty of de Maze, and the arms of the admiralty are cast in relief over the first reinforce section of the barrel. On a ribbon scroll immediately below is the dated inscription ’16 D. ADMIRALITEYT TOT. ROTTERDAM 58’.
The remainder of the barrel is further cast in relief, with astragal mouldings at either end of the chase section, each of these in turn backed by bands of tulip ornament (the forward bands lightly corroded), a broader band of scrolling foliage forms a border for the ogee at the head of the reinforce, the foliage framing at its centre the symbolic device of the Union of the Seven Provinces of the Republic, two hands meeting to clasp a sheaf of seven arrows.
With continued decorative mouldings forming borders at both ends of the reinforce and about the vent-field, raised moulded base-ring cast with the founder’s signature ‘CORNELIS . OVEROGGE . FECIT . ROTTERDAM’, and with the unit weight ’74.6’ below. With a prominent cascable button cast in the form of a nodular and leafy pod, its base projecting from the cascable formed as an acanthus calyx against a stippled ground.
Complete with a pair of trunnions and a pair of lifting handles, the latter in the form of marine monsters finely cast in the round. The gun is preserved in professionally conserved condition, with a natural green patina throughout. The ornamental bands immediately to the rear of the muzzle show light seabed corrosion.
The proportions and design of this gun anticipate many of the features belonging to the Dutch Seven Provinces pattern for ships’ ordnance formally adopted in 1666, although in this respect this gun is not unique, with the comparable example of a 24-pdr from the same foundry, and again from the Eendracht wreck, being dated as early as 1631.
The shape of the muzzle section conforms to that laid down for gun barrels of 6, 12 and 18-pdr calibre. Cornelis Jansz Ouderogge (1599/1600-1672) was the son of the bell and gun founder Jan Cornelis Ouderogge of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. He ran the Rotterdam gun foundry from about 1642, jointly with his brother Dirk who died in 1649, after which Cornelis continued the business until his death.
Two 6-pdr Drakes cast by Cornelis Ouderogge in 1662 and 1666 respectively, each for the Admiralty of Rotterdam, are now in the Rotterdam Maritime Museum. Another Drake dating from about 1650 was recovered near Rotterdam at the archaeological site ‘Eurogeul 12’.
A further example of a 6-pdr by Ouderogge was formerly in the important collection of antique Netherlands ordnance of H.L. Visser, Wassenaar (HVC89). This example is dated 1667 and was also made for the Rotterdam Admiralty. Notably, the casting is less ornate than on the present example, the arrows device of the Union of Provinces is not included and the arms of the Rotterdam Admiralty are crowned.
The Eendracht went down with the loss of 404 lives out of a ships’ complement of 409. Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer, the commander of the Dutch Fleet had himself been killed by a cannon ball shortly before the magazine explosion. The Eendracht had been completed in 1654 and had taken part in a number of engagements under van Wassenaer’s
command. The present gun, cast in 1658, may have fired in anger during the Eendracht’s fight against the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound, on 8th November of that year. It will certainly have done so in its heated fight with The Royal Charles under Sir William Penn.
In 1987 in the course of their survey of the North Sea the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment discovered at a depth of 38m an area full of bronze cannon, at Nieuwe Ankerplaats. Fragments of wooden ship construction and rope were present also. Similar finds, though in smaller numbers, were found in the vicinity of the site, corresponding with the explosive destruction of the Eendracht.
Portrait of Jacob, Baron van Wassenaer, Lord of Obdam, Lieutenant Admiral of Holland and West Friesland. Killed at the Battle of Lowestoft, shortly before the destruction of his Flagship, the Eendracht.
A Rare Battery of Three Saluting Cannon, made for a Member of the Prominent Danish Bielcke Family by the Lübeck Gunfounder, almost certainly Albrecht Benningck, Master Gun and Bellfounder (Rotgießer ) to the Hanseatic City of Lübeck dated 1678
The cannon signed A.B. Northern Germany, Lübeck. Bronze 94 cm / 37 in (each barrel)
Provenance
Made for Admiral Henrik Bielke (d.1683), commander of the Danish-Norwegian Navy (1657-79), for presentation to his young son, Christian Fridrich Bielke (1670-1709).
Transferred from one of the three Bielke family estates to the former Danish royal residence of Valdemar’s Castle, on the island of Tåsinge in southern Denmark (date unknown); since 1678 the seat of Admiral Niels Juel (1629-97), a compatriot of Admiral Bielke, each celebrated victors of the Swedish Wars; Jules’ grandson of the same name was resident there 1723-66, and the descendant family thereafter until 2017. The three cannon remained at Valdemar’s Castle, displayed in the ‘Niels Juel Room’ (inv. no. NJS 01) until the sale of the castle and its contents in 2022. Sold Brunn Rasmussen, Copenhagen, Fine Art and Antiques from Valdemar’s Castle, 21 September 2022.
This rare matching trio of cannon are a superb example of bronze gun-founding in the German baroque tradition. The relief castings are preserved in crisp condition with almost no cleaning wear, and the three share a uniform light patina throughout. Each is stamped somewhat cryptically with the founder’s abbreviated and Latinised signature all in miniscules between the fillet mouldings of the base ring: A. B. M(e) F(ecit). LVBECA. 1678
There can be little doubt that the founder is Albrecht Benningck of Lübeck, a Master gun- and bellfounder (historically a Rotgießer) of pre-eminent accomplishment within the period.
Albrecht Benningck (16137-95) was appointed gunfounder to the wealthy north German city of Lübeck in 1665, at this date the de facto trading and cultural capital of the Hanseatic city states, the powerful centre of trade with the Baltic nations and those of the North Sea coasts.
The three bronze barrels forming this saluting battery each take the multi-stage form characteristic of north European ordnance of the period. These stages or sections are segmented by a series of raised asragal, fillet and ogee mouldings, with those encircling the muzzle naturally taking the greatest prominence. Immediately behind these forward mouldings the muzzle section is completed by a wide repeating architectural frieze in relief, involving leaf ornament and grotesques. The succeeding chase section of the barrel is again decorated with relief bands of acanthus leaf ornament differing top and bottom; behind this the second reinforce is decorated over its whole upper surface with a further acanthus leaf panel arranged as a symmetrical design, and seats both the trunnions at the sides and a pair of lifting handles above, the latter formed as marine monsters cast in the round.
Rearward, the first reinforce is cast with a mantled shield bearing the arms and crest of the Bielke family of Denmark (Armorial Général ed. 1923/91, vol. I, pl. CCXI), below this a scroll is inscribed with the name of the recipient owner ‘ CHRISTIAN FRIDRICH CHRISTIAN BIELKE’, the entire armorial design enclosed by triumphant laurel branches and all set against a contrasting matted ground. The vent field beneath this is decorated with further scrolling leafy stems, the bronze founder’s abbreviated signature and the date stamped at the base ring, and the cascable cast with a prominent button formed as a budding calyx and issuant from an acanthus calyx cast over the matted cascable face.
In 1668 Albrecht Benningck cast the famous Pulsglocke bell for the Marienkirche in Lübeck: destroyed in 1942, today the great bell serves as a war memorial. In the following year he completed two 48-pdr. presentation guns for the Seven Provinces of the United Netherlands, these exceptional works
being the finest and most elaborately cast pieces of bronze ordnance to bear Benningck’s name. These are said to have been a gift for the prompt payment of a large order (presumably a significant payment for the fulfilment of a Netherlands military contract). The pair were subsequently looted from the Delft arsenal by Napoleonic troops, one was sent to Vienna and the other to Berlin, where it was destroyed in the Second World War.
The surviving masterpiece gun is today preserved in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna.
In 1679, the year following the casting of these three saluting cannon, Albrecht Benningck cast a further magnificent 24-pdr. Gun, named the ‘Pallas Athene’, for Friedrich Willhelm, Prince Elector of Brandenburg; that gun is now displayed in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.
Further examples of Benningck’s bronze cannon are in the Tøjhus Museum in Copenhagen, the Legermuseum in Delft, and the Artillery Museum in Saint Petersburg.
In 1685 Benningck clashed with the Lübeck city council over two mortars for which he claimed he had not been paid. Disenchanted by the outcome of that discussion Benninck left the city in 1686 or ’87, probably for Berlin. In 1692 Benninck moved to Copenhagen to take up the post of Royal Gunfounder. He remained there for the remaining four year of his life. The present three cannon made for a notable Danish family are evidence of Benningck’s existing connections in Copenhagen, presumably established through the reach of Lübeck commerce.
In reward for his actions Bielke was promoted Riksadmiral in 1662 and in 1666 he received a seat on the Danish Privvy Council. Bielke retired from his senior command in the Dano-Norwegian Navy in 1679.
His son Christian Fridrich Bielke, the young recipient of this battery of small cannon, grew up at the family residence of Naesbyholm near Glumsø. It was presumably from there that the present three
cannon came into Niels Juels’ ownership and were transferred to Valdemar’s Castle, the home of his son and in turn his grandson also.
In 1723 the castle became the residence of Niels Juels the Younger, Chamberlain to the Danish Royal Court and grandson of the Danish naval hero. The present cannon were presumably in situ during this period and would have remained so after his death in 1766.
Christian Fridrich Bielke grew up to pursue a distinguished career in the Danish army and in the service of the Allied Alliance against France. In 1688 he entered the Royal Life Guards as an officer cadet. Following active service in The Nine Years War in the Spanish Netherlands, in 1695 Bielke served as a volunteer in the allied forces during the Siege of Namur. In 1701 he was promoted to colonel and commanding officer of the newly formed Funen infantry regiment, thence to command Prince Christian’s Regiment in 1706. Two years later he resumed active field service in command of a battalion of Prince Carl’s Regiment in the Anglo-Dutch force in Brabant, also serving as brigadier of the auxiliaries.
In June 1709 Bielke took part in the victorious allied Siege of the fortress of Tournai, under the overall command of the Duke of Marlborough, and on 11th September was severely wounded at the infamously bloody Battle of Malplaquet, dying three days later. Naesbyholm was sold within that year, to King Frederik IV.
Portrait of Henrik Bielke, who almost certainly commissioned these cannon for presentation to his son, Christian Fridrich.
A Magnificent and Rare Royal British or Hanoverian Huntsman’s Satchel
c. 1714 – 27
Germany. Silk, leather, cotton, steel 35 cm / 13.78 in (diameter)
Provenance
The armoury of the Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel and their successors, the Kings and Princes of Hanover, successively housed in the Wolfenbuttel Zeughaus, Schloss Blankenburg and Schloss Marienburg, Lower Saxony.
A Large Masterpiece Chest or Door Lock
c. 1720
Germany, Munich. Brass, steel
Provenance
From the collection of The Lord Astor of Hever, sold The Hever Castle Collection, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., Friday 6 th May 1983, sold as lot 217 for £6,820
With brass front-plate, pierced and engraved with interlacing foliate straps and trellis work, shooting four bolts and one catch, and retaining its original key with complex cut wards, working within an octagonal tower cupola. The steel back-plate pierced with scrolling foliage and shell-work, the angle plate and bolts struck with a mark, the figure of a monk, for the City of Munich.
A Brace of French Double-Barrelled Silver-Mounted
Flintlock Sporting Guns by Blanchard
dated 1825
France, Paris. Wood, steel and gold
Gun marked 189:
Length 132 cm / 52 in Barrel length: 91 cm / 35.75 in
Gun marked 190:
Length 130 cm / 51.25 in Barrel length: 89 cm / 35 in
Signed on the locks and barrels BLANCHARD À PARIS. Barrel-forger’s marks of Albert Henri Renette. Each set of barrels struck on the underside with its serial number and date.
Provenance
Private collection, France
This exceptionally maintained and rarely used brace of guns was produced during a period of transition in Paris gun making: the post-Napoleonic restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. Lucrèce Blanchard is recorded as working at 36 rue de Cléry, Paris, between 1825-1850; in January 1821 he had been granted a patent for a percussion rifle. By 1837 the firm was joined by Charles Hypolite Houllier, a gunmaker from Liege, whom had married Blanchard’s daughter. Henceforth the firm traded as Houllier-Blanchard, continuing at rue de Cléry. The gunmakers exhibited in London at The Great Exhibition of 1851 and at the International Exhibition of 1862; they were awarded prize medals at each and again in Paris at the Exposition Universelle of 1867.
The barrelmaker whose marks are stamped on the present guns was Albert Henri Marie Renette. He is first recorded in 1793, between 1809-1834 as a gunmaker and barrelmaker at 60 rue Popincourt, and later at no. 96. Renette signed himself Renette père / Cannonier du Roi / Arquebusier du Roi, a testimony to his abilities and high standing.
