Arms, Armour & Militaria

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Munich auction house Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) regularly turns up showstopping lots of arms and armour and the star of the latest sales series was a weapon that was always designed to impress on every level.

The most unusual armour lot to emerge in recent sales was the late 16th century German brass parade cuirass which made £86,000 at Thomas Del Mar (20% buyer’s premium) in London on December 8.

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.

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

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.

The ubiquitous First World War memorial plaques – the ‘death penny’ – need to have a posthumous recipient of note to sell for anything more than £50-100.

Many of the unsung British heroes of both world wars served in the royal and merchant navies carrying and protecting supplies to Russia or the USSR.

The sale of Native American art and artefacts at Thomaston Place in Maine on January 14 will include a collection of historical items that mostly date from the 14-year period between the Battle of the Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee.