Select Department
Select Category
click for more images
The late bronze age early Luristan culture was renowned for their bronze workmanship and this cast bronze sword is an excellent illustration of their skill. Cast using the lost wax process, this sword is a rare example of the double ear pommel type found in the great museums of the world. This well-balanced and mighty weapon, is around the same proportions of the much later Roman gladius. It features a slender square hilt that joins to a pommel that divides at right angles to the blade into two finely decorated semi-circular "ears". The pommel features with a semi-circular opening in the centre of each ear. A rectangular guard carefully designed that extends down to firmly grip the upper end of the double-edged blade. The wide graduated blade that tapers regularly to a point and it has, low, twin central midribs that taper regularly with almost straight cutting edge to a point, making it most suitable for thrusting and cutting. It is the austere perfection of line and proportion that makes this weapon so beautiful. For reference see: Moorey P.R.S. "Catalogue of Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum" (1971), pg. 80 fig 63, Mahboubian, H. "Art of Ancient Iran" pg 304 386(a) & (b) and pg 314-315 397a-I, Moorey PRS "Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Adam Collection" pg 58 28 and Muscarella "Bronze and Iron, Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art" pgs 282-285 385-390. This type of pommel represents the north-western Persian version of weapons evolved from Elamite or Mesopotamian flange-hilted blades. They are found made throughout the northern regions of Persia in both bronze and iron, and sometimes with a combination of bronze hilt and iron blade. Items such as this were oft acquired in the 18th century by British noblemen touring Northern France and Italy on their Grand Tour. Originally placed on display in the family 'cabinet of curiosities', within his country house upon his return home. A popular pastime in the 18th and 19th century, comprised of English ladies and gentlemen traveling for many months, or even years, througout classical Europe, and Middle East, acquiring antiquities and antiques for their private collections. This is a most handsome ancient bronze weapon from the era of the so called Trojan Wars. The ancient Greeks believed the Trojan War was a historical event that had taken place in the 13th or 12th century BC, and believed that Troy was located in modern day Turkey near the Dardanelles. In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey . "The Iliad" relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the Achaean leaders. Other parts of the war were told in a cycle of epic poems, which has only survived in fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets such as Virgil and Ovid. The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the fairest". Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen's husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years due to Paris' insult. After the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris, the city fell to the ruse of the Trojan Horse. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans (except for some of the women and children whom they kept or sold as slaves) and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods' wrath. Few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, who was said to have led the surviving Trojans to modern day Italy. Made in copper bronze in the Western Asiatic region. Western Asiatic bronzes refer to items dating from roughly 1200-800 BC that have been excavated since the late 1920's in the Harsin, Khorramabad and Alishtar valleys of the Zagros Mountains especially at the site of Tepe Sialk. Scholars believe they were created by either the Cimmerians or by such related Indo-European peoples as the early Medes and Persians. Weapons from this region were highly sought after by warriors of many cultures because of their quality, balance and durability. Weighs 1,6 kilos, 79 cms long
Code: 23448
3450.00 GBP
Saw back blade struck with Birmingham inspector?s marks, regulation brass stirrup hilt stamped with issue date 1.1886 and unit markings V. MX 8. 4. In a regulation brass mounted leather scabbard, mouth of locket stamped 8.1889 1.V.L.F.3 and MOLE. Blade 57cms, overall 70cms. Very good condition, some age wear overall, tip of blade slightly bent. Invented for use in the Crimean War, issued as a regimental sapper's weapon for defences and siege construction, and then many were recalled [in the late Victorian era and early 20th century] and re-issued to the Royal Navy for Naval Brigades, for use as a cutlass as well as a sapper's sword.Some were recorded as being used by the British Navy in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
Code: 21811
595.00 GBP
of "Les Fiers Ecossais" their French nickname 'The Proud Scots'. A very rare sword that bears the unique crest of the 1st 'Scottish' Co. of The Kings Personal Royal Bodyguard [Garde Du Corps] of French Kings Louis XVIth & Louis XVIIIth. Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars period, a rare sword of the "Scottish company", the 1er Garde Ecossaise du Corps du Roy, possibly the sword of Antoine de Lhoyer, or, certainly one of his very few brother officers. A devout royalist, Antoine de Lhoyer in 1789 became a soldier in the Gardes du Corps du Roi, the personal bodyguard to Louis XVI. The rest of Lhoyer's life was to be buffeted by the momentous events of the French Revolution. A devout royalist, in 1789 he became a soldier in the Gardes du Corps du Roi, the bodyguard to Louis XVI. He fled from France after the massacre of guards by the crowd that invaded Versailles on 6 October 1789. By 1792, in Koblenz he had enlisted with the arm?e des Princes which joined with an allied army of Prussian and Austrian soldiers led by the Duke of Brunswick in an unsuccessful invasion of France in 1792. The years 1794-7 saw him participating in the campaigns with the Austrian army, and in 1799-1800 he served with counter revolutionary forces in the Army of Cond?. He was wounded in battle and lost the use of his right hand for three years. He took refuge in Hamburg between 1800 and 1804 where his first known musical works were published (opus 12 to 18). Antoine de Lhoyer [L'Hoyer] (6 September 1768 ? 15 March 1852) was also a French virtuoso classical guitarist and an eminent early romantic composer of mainly chamber music featuring the classical guitar. Lhoyer also had an incredible and notable military career, he was an elite member of Gardes du Corps du Roi, a Knight of the Order of St John and a Knight of the Order of St Louis. Louis XVIII appointed him "Major de la place" on the ?le d?Ol?ron in 1816. History of the French King's personal Scottish guards. The King kept about him his Garde ?cossaise. The Scottish Guards had likely protected him during the murder of John the Fearless at the bridge of Montereau, and rescued him from a fire in Gascony in 1442. His Scottish Guards fell at the Battle of Montlh?ry defending their King, Louis XI of France, in 1465. Later history The Garde ?cossaise survived as the King's of France's personal guard until the end of the Bourbon monarchy as the senior or Scottish Company of the Gardes du Corps (Body Guards). There were four companies of Body Guards and a detachment of them accompanied the French King wherever he went, posted guards on his sleeping place and even escorted his food from kitchen to table. The Garde ?cossaise, [Scots Guard) was an elite Scottish military unit founded in 1418 by the Valois Charles VII of France, to be personal bodyguards to the French monarchy. They were assimilated into the Maison du Roi and later formed the first company of the Garde du Corps du Roi (Royal Bodyguard). In 1450, King James II sent a company of 24 noble Scots under the command of Patrick de Spens, son of his custodian. This company takes the name of archiers du corps or gardes de la manche. On 31 August 1490, this company, these of Patry Folcart, Thomas Haliday and a part of the company of Robin Petitloch became the first company of archiers de la garde du roi under the command of Guillaume Stuier (Stuart). At the beginning la compagnie ?cossaise des gardes du corps du roi included 100 gardes du corps (25 bodyguards and 75 archers). Each bodyguard had four men-at-arms under his command, (a squire, an archer, a cranequinier and a servant), one of them acquired the name of premier homme d'armes du royaume de France. They were finally disbanded in 1830 at the abdication of Charles X. During the reign of Francis I the garde were held up by blizzards near the Simplon Pass after a defeat at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. Some of the men reputedly settled there and their descendants became known as the "Lost Clan". From the 16th century onwards recruitment of the unit was primarily from Frenchmen and the Scottish element gradually diminished at that time but the name remained in their honour. The name was retained as were certain words of command which had originated in Scotland. In 1632, the Earl of Enzie began to rebuild the Scottish regiment in France. There is sometimes confusion as to which unit actually held the title of Garde ?cossaise, with several regiments in service often being conflated, especially those commanded by Sir John Hepburn, James Campbell, 1st Earl of Irvine (later commanded by Sir Robert Moray) and Colonel James Douglas. As an example some works recording Scots in action have simply applied the Garde ?cossaise name, although referring to the Regiment de Douglas. By the reign of Louis XV the Scottish Company numbered 21 officers and 330 men in a mounted unit which last saw active service when they escorted Louis at the Battle of Lawfeld on 1 July 1747. On this and other occasions the Scottish Company carried claymores with steel basket guards instead of the swords of the other French heavy cavalry. They were distinguished from the other companies of the Body Guards by wearing white bandoleers garnished with silver lace. The Scottish Company provided a special detachment of 24 Gardes de la Manche (literally "Guards of the Sleeve") who stood in close attendance to the king during court ceremonies. The name indicated that they stood so close to the monarch as to be brushed by his sleeve. The Gardes de la Manche were distinguished by a heavily embroidered white and gold cassock which they wore over the blue and red and silver uniform of the Body Guard. All four companies of the Body Guard were formally disbanded in 1791, although the aristocratic personnel of the regiment had dispersed following the closure of Versailles as a royal palace in October 1789. They were re-established at the time of the First Bourbon Restoration under an ordinance dated 25 May 1814. Until their final dissolution in 1830 the Senior Company retained the title of "les fiers Ecossais" (the proud Scots) Several original pictures in the gallery of the Ist Scottish, including a portrait of Monsieur Bergier, an Officer of the 1st Scottish Guards (18th century). No scabbard
Code: 22032
2850.00 GBP
It seems one couldn't find a sword, more defined and categorised as an iconic pirate cutlass, if one tried. Part of its decor includes a sea beast, crashing waves with sea spray, a parrot's head, a clam shell guard, and a stylised cannon ball. It simply couldn't be more iconic, a cliche pirate cutlass example, yet, it is a superb, original, antique cutlass, that has undoubtedly seen combat service, yet survived very well. With its wide, twin fullered crescent blade, engraved with a decorative repeating wave and sea spray pattern. It has a steel single knuckle bow with cannon ball design, a stylised parrot's head quillon, and a clamshell shaped guard. Carved hardwood hilt with sea beast head pommel. Heavy leather scabbard with stamped patterning and an iron reinforced chape. Likely made in the Philippine Islands, and we show in the gallery a photo of four somewhat similar, 17th and 18th century variants of the same type of Philippino cutlasses in the Royal Ontario Museum collection. Another photo of a similar shell guard cutlass with stag hilt [but plain pommel] recovered covered in barnacles and xrayed, from a French Privateer La Dauphine, recovered off St Malo, the ship was lost in 1804. Although likely made in the Philippine Islands they were traded throughout the region with Corsairs and Barbary pirates of all persuasions. This super cutlass has just returned from 3 full days in the workshop being sympathetically hand cleaned and conserved, no restoration required at all fortunately, just cleaning. The north-west Pacific coastline of North America can be described as a double-edged sword of wild rugged desolate coastline that contrasts the serene security of blissful bays and protected island hideaways. The landscape is anchored by a protected inside passage. Despite all the beauty and ruggedness of the Pacific Northwest, it is the descriptions of the tropical paradises of the Caribbean Islands and the South Pacific that are made popular and romanticised in modern culture through pirate novels, images and movies. These images and descriptions have become the defacto stereotype of a pirate's "paradise". These "paradises" have been further embellished through classic tales of adventure from such authors as Robert Louis Stevenson, Howard Pyle, Joseph Conrad, and Daniel Defoe. The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the Indian Ocean, North America, and West Africa. Histories of piracy often subdivide the Golden Age of Piracy into three periods: The buccaneering period (approximately 1650 to 1680), characterised by Anglo-French seamen based in Jamaica and Tortuga attacking Spanish colonies, and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Pirate Round (1690s), associated with long-distance voyages from the Americas to rob Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. The post-Spanish Succession period (1715 to 1726), when Anglo-American sailors and privateers left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the North American eastern seaboard, and the West African coast. Overall inches long in scabbard 27.3/4 inches, blade 20 1/2 inches long. The blade in the scabbard stops around 1 inch from the guard, and its belt loop is part detached.
Code: 23680
PriceonRequest
Possibly Lakota or Cheyenne. A simply stunning example of these highly distinctive long guns, adapted and used by the Native American plains tribes of the 18th and 19th century. In over 45 years we have never seen a nicer example, in or out of a museum, decorated with such profusion and complexity. An absolutely delightful example created by a Plains Indian tribe using a fine French made flintlock military style musket bearing the lock of the Imperial Napoleonic period of 1805. Fully brass studded walnut stock with a regular geometric pattern typical of use by Native American 'Chiefs' of the time and through to the 1870's. The higher quality guns such as this one were called Chief's Guns as the finer guns were given to the tribes chief by either the French or English military in order to encourage the tribe to fight on the protagonists side, such as was incredibly prevalent in the French Indian Wars of the 1760s throughout the American frontier states. The tradition continued both in peacetime and war right until the 1870's. The English made Chiefs Guns often had an engraved wrist escutcheon bearing a GR cypher surmounted by the King's crown. One of the earliest accounts of firearms possession by Indians out West dates to the 1750s, in New Mexico, where French traders cited a brisk exchange of flintlocks to the Wichitas and Comanches for their horses. Firearms, or in some cases the lack of them, played a major role in Indian life from the time they were first introduced to the end of the Indian Wars of the 19th century. Those tribes that possessed both horses and guns were far better equipped to forage for food, wage war or defend themselves than were those who had neither. Together, the horse and the gun combined to make the Indian of the Great Plains the finest light cavalryman the world had ever seen. Sometimes they hammered in iron or brass nails to hold together a broken stock, but usually they reserved such hardware to decorate the firearm. Feathers, beads, even human trigger fingers cut from an enemy, as well as other body appendages, could also adorn an Indian?s gun throughout the 19th century. The Great Plains Indians acquired guns from the French and British Traders. Apparently a common trading deal for the price of the gun was a stack of furs as high as the rifle. The trade of firearms had a startling impact on the Native American tribes of North America. The balance of power shifted to those tribes that possessed firearms and those tribes that did not which is further explained in the Beaver Wars in which the Iroquois League destroyed several large tribes including the Hurons, Eries and Susquehannocks. Native American Indians viewed the gun as a delivery system for poison, similar to a snake. We show in the gallery several paintings and engraving of Indians of the time holding their prized guns, and Sitting Bulls flintlock, studded with brass nail head, that he surrendered at Fort Buford, Dakota in 1881, carved with his name that he had learnt to write in English while in Canada. Sitting Bull [c. 1831 ? December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man who led his people during years of resistance to United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him, at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement. Before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw many soldiers, "as thick as grasshoppers," falling upside down into the Lakota camp, which his people took as a foreshadowing of a major victory in which a large number of soldiers would be killed. About three weeks later, the confederated Lakota tribes with the Northern Cheyenne defeated the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer on June 25, 1876, annihilating Custer's battalion and seeming to bear out Sitting Bull's prophetic vision. Sitting Bull's leadership inspired his people to a major victory. Months after their victory at the battle, Sitting Bull and his group left the United States for Wood Mountain, North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan), where he remained until 1881, at which time he and most of his band returned to US territory and surrendered to U.S. forces. As with all our antique guns no license is required as they are all unrestricted antique collectables
Code: 22588
3650.00 GBP
18th century, made for the Russian and Caucasian market with silver and coral decorated mounts, and coral inlay decor, that were often made by Russian silversmiths, for all manner of decorative arts and objects d'art, from jewellery to sword and pistol fittings, for high quality items destined for the Russian nobility market. Fine work of this type was also made within the Caucasian region, and into the Ottoman Empire. This fine pistol in would have been used around the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Baltic regions in the 18th and early 19th century. Highly extrvagent pistols of this form were often called Ali Pasha style pistols, used by the military generals and princes and naval corsair pirate captains. Made in the region of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas and absolute stunning and extravagant flintlock pistol. The heavy butt-plates could have been used as maces once the ball has been fired. Ali Pasha wanted to establish in the Mediterranean a sea-power which should be a counterpart of that of the Dey of Algiers, Ahmed ben Ali. In order to gain a seaport on the Albanian coast that was dominated by Venice, Ali Pasha formed an alliance with Napoleon I of France, who had established Fran?ois Pouqueville as his general consul in Ioannina, with the complete consent of the Ottoman Sultan Selim III. After the Treaty of Tilsit, where Napoleon granted the Czar his plan to dismantle the Ottoman Empire, Ali Pasha switched sides and allied with Britain in 1807; a detailed account of his alliance with the British was written by Sir Richard Church. His actions were permitted by the Ottoman government in Constantinople. Ali Pasha was very cautious and unappeased by the emergence of the new Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II in the year 1808. Lord Byron visited Ali's court in Io?nnina in 1809 and recorded the encounter in his work Childe Harold. He evidently had mixed feelings about the despot, noting the splendour of Ali Pasha's court and the Greek cultural revival that he had encouraged in Io?nnina, which Byron described as being "superior in wealth, refinement and learning" to any other Greek town. In a letter to his mother, however, Byron deplored Ali's cruelty: "His Highness is a remorseless tyrant, guilty of the most horrible cruelties, very brave, so good a general that they call him the Mahometan Buonaparte but as barbarous as he is successful, roasting rebels, etc., etc..". As with all our antique guns no license is required as they are all unrestricted antique collectables
Code: 22168
2295.00 GBP
No maker markings, fully ordnanced proofed on each cylinder and barrel. Good tight action, open frame, good indexing and rotation. In 1857 Joseph Bentley held a patent for a Double Action Revolver with only very few ever being produced by Bentley himself. However, he did make an agreement with a small group of Birmingham Gunmakers to produce and sell them for him on a commission sale basis. This example has Birmingham proof stamps. Some numbers of Webley-Bentley revolvers were used during the US Civil War
Code: 21996
950.00 GBP
Named to its owner. Walnut stock with fabulous age patina, with slab-sided grips, all brass furniture and trigger guard with acorn finial. Made by Wheeler of London. Two stage octagonal to round steel barrel with silver X foresight. A very nice officer's and gentleman's flintlock pistol from the 1790's into the Napoleonic Wars period. The Napoleonic Wars (1803?1815) were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly owing to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly as Napoleon's armies conquered much of Europe but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. The alliance led by Britain and one of it's finest General's, the Duke of Wellington, brought about Napoleon's empire ultimately suffering a complete and total military defeat resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France and the creation of the Concert of Europe.
Code: 21443
1595.00 GBP
Heavy guage, cast, King George IIIrd London silver, dated either 1769 or 1789 [difficult to tell exactly]. This would enhance a musket or fowling piece up to a whole new level, either as a replacement for a plain brass type, or to replace a missing example. 147.5 grams weight, butt 50mm x 124mm, butt tang 105mm
Code: 17249
225.00 GBP
Late 18th Century fine Damascus barrel Jazail With Flintlock by Hirst of London Dated 1800. Formerly the property of a tribal warlord. A very fine, attractive and incredibly significant historical example of a North West Frontier Afghan War long gun known as a Jazail. With a highly distinctive recurved butt, bearing a horn butt plate. Finest Damascus steel twist barrel. The ordnance inspected lock was likely captured from an East India Co. breech loading rifle [similar to the Ferguson rifle] which Hirst was most renown. It has the EIC mark and the EIC heart 4 engraving, plus an ordnance ispector stamp number 2. The gunlock and it's maker is a most interesting historical aspect of this intriguing gun. Hirst had his business based in Little Tower Hill, London, and he was a contractor to the Ordnance and the East India Co. His specialism was rare breech loading rifles, with screw mounted breeches, and wall mounted pivot guns with large flintlock mechanisms, just as this one is. Jazails very often had captured British made locks, as their domestically made locks were often very basic matchlock types. The Jazail was used by the notorious North West Frontier tribesmen, in the 18th century, during the era of what was called The Great Game. The period when the British control of India was expanding, yet under considerable and constant threat by Russia, and it's attempted conspiracies in order to influence discord among the Indian populace for their own advantages, plus ?a change, plus c'est la m?me chose. Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim was based around this very geo political situation, and a most informative, accurate, and yet ripping tale that it is too. It would have also been used in the Ist Afghan War in the 1830's , in many ways the first major conflict of The Great Game. He reasons for the British invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in the late 1830s are many and varied. They mainly revolve around what one of the 'victims' of the event referred to as 'the Great Game'. This was the name given by Arthur Conolly to denote the shadow boxing between Russia and Britain for influence in Central Asia for much of the 19th Century. Relations between Russia and Britain were strained in the 1830s as the British feared the expansionist and strong armed tactics of Tsar Nicholas I who came to the throne in 1825. He sought a policy that expanded Russian influence southwards and eastwards. This was bringing Russian influence towards Britain's own 'Jewel in the Crown' India. India was still ruled by the East India Company, although the British government had constrained much of the company's freedom to act by this time and was ultimately guiding its policy on the wider international scene. The British were particularly concerned at Russian influence in Persia. They had heard reports that the Russians were helping the Shah of Persia beseige Herat on the western side of Afghanistan. If successful in taking this city, Russian influence would advance along the route that they would take if they were to invade India at any point in the future. But British alarm bells really began to ring when a rumour circulated that a Russian had arrived at the court of Dost Mohammed in Kabul. If this was true, then it was believed that Russian influence might extend to the borders of India itself. Steeped in classical education, most British decision makers knew the invasion route of India taken by Alexander the Great and assumed that the Russians would soon have the capability to make a similar incursion. As with all our antique guns no license is required as they are all unrestricted antique collectables
Code: 22117
1850.00 GBP
website designed and maintained by Concept500
