Arms, Armour & Militaria
Arms and armour stretches from ancient times to modern conflicts, with weapons ranging from swords and clubs to firearms, armour including helmets and shields, and militaria such as medals, uniforms, flags and ephemera.
Medals and militaria are often sold at auction as specialised categories, with arms and armour sales also held.
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Banner headline: the $11m flag
24 June 2006Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton was one of the most notorious British commanders of the American Revolution. After leading a series of successful operations in both the north and south, he returned home after the war as one of the most famous men in England, sat for a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds and began a long-term affair with actress and royal consort Mary Robinson.
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Steel-plated and copper-bottomed - the origins of the tank in 1915
24 June 2006Before The Great War the Lincoln engineering company, William Foster and Co, was synonymous with the very best threshing machines. By 1918, managing director Sir William Tritton, together with Major W.G. Wilson, had been credited by the Royal Commission as the inventor of an armoured fighting vehicle forever known as the tank.
The man who captured Monty
05 June 2006AN unseen and apparently unique collection of photographs, letters and maps that illuminates the campaigns of Field Marshall Montgomery in the Second World War has emerged at Kent auctioneers Watermans.
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Double Dux – the gaze and the glaze
24 April 2006MUSSOLINI’s son-in-law and foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, would have done well to heed the imagery of this black glazed terracotta head when another version of it came into his possession.
Now Sotheby’s contract out arms and armour
14 December 2005WEDNESDAY, December 14 sees Thomas Del Mar Ltd’s inaugural sale of arms and armour at Sotheby’s Olympia.
Scots look at knives legislation
10 August 2005The Scottish Executive is considering introducing a licensing scheme for the trade in non-domestic knives and banning the sale of swords. Both measures could impact heavily on the antique arms market.
Churchill’s thanks mean a great lot
27 July 2005TWO lots stood out among the 600 lots offered at Hampshire. One was an 18th century matched pair of brass barrelled flintlock pistols signed Burnford, London, which, because of a missing ramrod and broken trigger mechanism were catalogued a/f but sold to a collector at a quadruple estimate £1600.
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Charlotte enjoys her own £50,000 victory after 220 years…
12 July 2005Few will be unaware that 2005 is the bicentenary of Nelson’s death at the Battle of Trafalgar, given the number of celebrations and exhibitions commemorating the event.
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Unique medal surfaces with tale of courage
07 July 2005IT was just three weeks into the First World War when British destroyers engaged the enemy off the Heligoland Bight near Denmark.
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Pistol gets firm off to a record start
13 May 2005ARMS and armour sales, which themselves encompass a myriad special interests, are another area with their own micro-economy impervious to whatever wild winds are blowing in the wider market.
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Crown scores well in the provinces
28 April 2005DREWEATT Neate’s sale on 23rd March at Donnington Priory offered a 100-lot section of coins, banknotes and medals which produced a 100 per cent take-up.
Bidding duel takes pistols to ten times estimate
28 April 2005Morphets, Harrogate, March 10. Buyer’s premium: 15/10 per cent A BIDDING duel by specialist arms and armour dealers was the highlight of Morphets’ 628-lot Yorkshire auction.
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Why the VC market is now more assured...
13 April 2005THERE have already been two major sales at Dix Noonan Webb (DNW) (15% buyer’s premium) this year. The first concerned war medals and took place on March 2.
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Echoes of glory boom across the salerooms
24 March 2005History is the new ‘cookery’ on TV, and the adventures of Rifleman Sharpe have brought the Peninsular War to more general notice, but that is hardly enough to explain why military medals, for all their echoes of glory, have become a real boom area in the antiques and collectables market.
Heroic appeal on cards
24 March 2005Special Postcard Auctions, Cirencester, February 28, Buyer’s premium: 10 per cent THE First World War was the main attraction at the Corinium Galleries when a single silk showing a bearded Un Diable Bleu – the nickname given to France’s gallant and celebrated Chasseurs Alpin regiment – led the day at £290, and a similar portrait bust of Un Poilu (infantryman) made £230.
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Flintlock pistols give vendor his money back
15 March 2005Headlining proceedings at Andrew Hartley, Ilkley on February 16-17 was a pair of late 18th century 8in (20cm) barrelled pistols by Ketland & Co, formerly in the prestigious collection of Keith Neal, dispersed by Christie's South Kensington in 2000 and 2001.
Why postcards wax and Wain
09 March 2005The recent competition seen for rare First World War silks was repeated at the sale conducted by Specialised Postcard Auctions (10% buyer’s premium) of Cirencester on December 6.
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To my dear sweetheart, the best and latest killing machine…
18 January 2005Wallis & Wallis, Lewes. November 23. Buyer’s premium: 15 per centSales of arms and militaria can, with their beautifully chased old flintlocks and exuberantly decorated uniforms, somehow skate over the fact that often what is on offer is, or was, associated with the darker side of humanity.
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Nelson, the Crimea and The Few – a top treble
18 January 2005IN late autumn there were three major sales of Orders, Decorations and Medals. Their combined total was £1,373,461 with 2592 lots offered. This compares with a total for 2004 of just over £6m and 6219 lots offered by the London auction houses. (The 2004 annual tabulation for numismatic sales will appear in a future ATG.)
Downtown Attractions
11 January 2005NEVER forget there is another armory in Manhattan, the one downtown at Lexington Avenue at 26th Street, and that one hosts some splendid shows throughout the year, starting in 2005 with the appropriately named Antiques at the Armory from January 21 to 23.
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