Arms, Armour & Militaria

As famous last words go, those of Major General John Sedgwick in the American Civil War take some beating.

West London saleroom Olympia Auctions has announced a new fundraising campaign to benefit the arms and armour department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Estimated at £100-150, a group of six items of Second World War army kit ended up selling for £4000 at Tennants (22% buyer’s premium).

This Victorian tailor-made military uniform by A Succaram Tookaram & Sons, Tailors, 273 Main Street, Poona was estimated at £150-200 at Lockdales (18% buyer’s premium) in Ipswich.

The Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) comprised volunteer civilians providing care to British, Empire and allied troops during the First World War, both in field hospitals near to the battlefield and in more established places of recuperation back home.

The only known blueprint of a Great War British Mark I tank has been sold by Carlisle auction house Laidlaw (18.5% buyer’s premium) to The Tank Museum in Bovington.

The healthy demand for top-notch medals with interesting back-stories shows no sign of decreasing, judging by recent results.

If a full-size Victoria Cross medal group is beyond your price range, a lot sold at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT) is perhaps the next best thing.

David Jeffcoat (1945-2020) was a man with many interests, not least setting up dining clubs such as the Lunardi Society celebrating the achievements of a hot air balloonist and another named after a local vicar turned highwayman.

Kathleen Lynn can be seen very much as a modern woman of her time. The daughter of a County Mayo Church of Ireland rector, her upbringing was conservatively Protestant and Unionist but she became politically radicalised through her exposure to the poverty of Dublin’s slums while she studied medicine.

RAF Wing Commander Terence Helfer’s Distinguished Flying Cross citation stated: “He has undertaken many hazardous missions…”

Found in a wardrobe during the clearance of a deceased estate in Spalding, ‘a group of four early 19th century French heraldic plaques’ sold way over hopes at Stamford Auction Rooms in Lincolnshire on February 26.

The search for doomed explorer John Franklin grips collectors almost as much as expeditions of discovery themselves.

Dix Noonan Webb set a record for a British army Victoria Cross on June 23.

Nelson held his protégé Captain Sir William Hoste KCB (1780-1828) in high esteem.

A Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund sword of £100 value took the honours at a Bonhams’ (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) sale of arms and armour.

A sword sold at Kent auction house C&T (22% buyer’s premium) belonged to a British Antarctic explorer who died in 1912 – but not with Robert Falcon Scott.

Arms and armour sales often throw out interesting talking points in the way of accessories.

The surprise lot at the sale held on December 11 by Ripon auction house Elstob & Elstob (22% buyer’s premium) was this 19th century Russian hunting dagger.