Arms, Armour & Militaria

The highlight of a Cornish auction on June 10 was an RAF logbook from Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot Flying Officer Arthur Peter Pease (1913-40).

Whatever Mr Derbyshire, The Worthy Representative of Freedom Loving Great Britain was doing in the Caucasus in 1920, the Armenians of Karabach were obviously pretty pleased about it.

In May 2019 Spink (20% buyer’s premium) medal specialist Marcus Budgen was entrusted to catalogue the medals of Gunner A Howard, ‘N’ Battery, 5th Brigade, Royal Artillery, one of just four members of the RA present at the defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War.

A private medal collection rated by Ipswich saleroom Lockdales (18% buyer’s premium) as “magnificent” was offered on May 20-22.

A selection of Second World War ephemera with a distinctly Polish flavour estimated at £60-100 sold instead for £7600 at a Devon auction.

Flight Lieutenant Maurice ‘Mark’ Mounsdon was one of only four remaining members of Sir Winston Churchill’s ‘The Few’ when he died in 2019 aged 101.

A pair of revolvers presented to American Civil War general and later US president Ulysses S Grant soldfor $4.4m (£3.61m) or $5.17m with premium.

For 19th century sahibs in tiger country and bwanas dealing with charging lions, howdah pistols like the one offered at West Sussex gun specialist Gavin Gardiner (25% buyer’s premium) were the preferred sidearm.

From mid-June Brussels will be a hive of activity on the art and antiques front with plenty on offer to interest residents and draw visitors to the city.

The Marine Sale at Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) included a very rare gold and enamel ring marking the death of Admiral Lord Nelson in 1805.

London auctioneer overcomes power cut to complete sale including a mighty Fresnel lens

When the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, a party of British Red Cross nurses and doctors stayed and tended those they could help back to health.

The Battle of Britain or Dambusters are usually involved when it comes to sizeable Royal Air Force medal results.

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

A medal awarded to a member of the only Canadian battalion composed of black soldiers to serve in the First World War has sold in a London auction.

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.

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.

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).

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