Arms, Armour & Militaria

A small fragment of a significant airship comes up for auction at Spicers in Old Goole, East Yorkshire, to mark a tragic centenary.

One of the prisoners to survive the horrors of the Changi camp in the Second World War was an art school dropout who later became a renowned illustrator.

The near ubiquitous ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ of the First World War becomes a rarity should the recipient be female.

The Galloways were a distinguished Victorian military family, as a number of items sold at Bishop & Miller (22% buyer’s premium) revealed.

The prize lot sold at a recent Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Munich was this 19th century Ottoman kilij of characteristic form with a curved blade swelling towards the tip.

The outstanding lot in the arms and armour sale held in London on June 30 by Thomas Del Mar (25% buyer’s premium) was the £96,000 16th century Augsburg close helmet illustrated on the front page of last week’s ATG (No 2501).

Among the properties included in the June Thomas Del Mar sale was the McEwen collection of bows and associated items which proved unexpectedly popular raising £30,000, around four times its top estimate.

Three pistol lots came to the fore at a recent sale at Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) in London.

The German Maxim machine gun was used to devastating effect on Allied troops during the First World War.

A premium-inclusive total of £1.5m was achieved at Holts’ (25/20% buyer’s premium) summer auction in Norfolk, the third consecutive sale held with no one bidding in the room because of Covid restrictions.

Two lots from the March 30 live online auction held by Antony Cribb (22% buyer’s premium) of Newbury are shown here.

Once the humble playthings of boys the world over, airguns now attract a keen collector following.

London-made flintlocks with a solid provenance to Alexander Hamilton took to the stage at US sale

Very soon after the gun was invented men were trying to find ways of speeding up the process of reloading powder and shot to obtain a superior rate of fire.

A Renaissance helmet sold at a London auction will be reunited with its garniture (set of armour) after being bought by Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA).

A Battle of Britain medal group sold at Gloucestershire auction house Dominic Winter will go on display at a new museum in London, it has been revealed.

The stern face, luxurious moustache and pointing finger are instantly familiar – but the message below Kitchener’s intense gaze not so.