Sword

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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).

On May 18 Paris auction firm Tessier Sarrou is selling the first part of a collection of Japanese swords.

Even the composite parts of weapons now long lost have a value at auction.

Lawrences’ (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Crewkerne on September 10 featured three swords that came to auction from the family of the ‘Father of the RAF’: Viscount Trenchard GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO (1873-1956).

This Royal Navy Reserve officer’s sword owned by Robert Erskine Childers was estimated at €3000-5000 in a recent auction by Mullen’s (20/12.5% buyer’s premium) in Bray, Co Dublin. The scabbard throat of the Victorian 1827-pattern sword is engraved 'RE Childers'.

Ken tanto, distinguished by double-edged blades, are one of the rarer styles of Japanese sword. Most were made as Buddhist ritual implements rather than weapons and are decorated accordingly.

Among the highlights of Antony Cribb’s Spring Virtual Arms and Armour sale was a collection of presentation swords.

Second-dibs sales at regional salerooms – those that follow after a major London auctioneer has cherry-picked the contents of a stately country house – can sometimes acquire the slighting epithet of ‘crumbs from a rich man’s table’.

Claymores (the word comes from the Scottish Gaelic claidheamh-mor meaning ‘great sword’) were the weapon of choice in the ongoing warfare between Highland clans and border skirmishes with the English from c.1400-1700.

Two spectacular early-19th century British presentation sabres have turned up in the salerooms recently, one in London and the other in Munich.

Edged weapons from the East continue to feature regularly among the top lots in auctions across the world. Awareness of the rich array of culturally-significant weapons to be found in Western collections has grown as internet technology reaches a new international audience.