Arms, Armour & Militaria

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

A group of medals awarded to a First World War ‘Tommy’ sold for a mid-estimate £2400 at Kent auction house C&T (22% buyer’s premium) on October 20-21. Not that unusual, it would seem.

Catalogued as ‘fine and exceptionally rare’, a north German parade cuirass is on its way to the Art Institute of Chicago after being sold at auction.

A remarkable garniture of weapons including the sword Napoleon is believed to have carried when he seized power in 1799 sold at an Illinois auction house.

A silver war badge issued to Lance-Corporal Harold Sandford Mugford of the Machine Gun Corps was a surprise highlight of a Gloucestershire sale.

Estimated at £200-300, this kaskara sold for £8200 at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 28.

Leering 4ft 7in (1.4m) out from the saleroom wall and with a 4ft 2in (50cm) antlers spread, a massive taxidermy moose head and shoulders was the major trophy at the best-yet biannual Country and Sporting sale at Mitchells (22% buyer’s premium).

Multi-estimate sums are not confined to Chinese works of art.

The 200th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death has brought some important consignments to market.

Including seafaring, tin, copper, studio potteries and fishing, a Penzance sale covered just about everything from the region bar pasties.

Irish castle home of earls about to be turned into hotel and spa furnishes a remarkable sale

One of the most daring air operations of the Second World War included New Zealand pilot Flight Lieutenant Maxwell Nicholas Sparks as a participant.

The London Antique Arms Fair, founded in 1967, will be running its 103rd fair at a new venue, the RAF Museum in Hendon on Sunday, October 3.