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Nation : Indian
Local Price : £3,795.00

Indian Army Prize Sword by Wilkinson, Very Fine. Ref X3401. A Very Fine Indian Army Prize Sword. 40&157; overall with 34 1/2&157; flat etched blade. Etched to one side ´Won by Troop Sgt Major William Busby Mayes 11th P.A.O. Hussars Delhi Camp 1871/2 . Presented by Col. C.C. Fraser C.B. and V.C. 11th P.A.O. Hussars.´ Initialled CCF and Wilkinson proof mark. To the obverse ´For the best man-at-arms prize sword in the Bengal Army´ and with initials W.B.M. and Henry Wilkinson, Pall Mall London. Blade number 1877 on the spine. Three bar light cavalry hilt with silver back strap engraved with 11th P.A.O. Hussars monogram and ´W.B.M. from C.C.F.´. In its original steel scabbard.&194;&160;&194;&160; Circa 1872.&194;&160; An uncommonly fine high quality prize sword in very good condition, comes with an extensive file of provenance and research. Ex G. R. Worrell collection Images courtesy of West Street Antiques (https://antiquearmsandarmour.com/)

Nation : Unknown
Local Price : £3,750.00

A Huge Flintlock Swivel Blunderbuss. A Huge Flintlock Deck Blunderbuss or Wall-Piece. With large swelling barrel flared at the muzzle, engraved LONDON stamped with London proofs and barrel smiths mark, with plain tang, plain lock signed J & W SHERWOOD ring-neck cock, figured full-stock, regulation style brass mounts, blackened iron stirrup peg mount with wooden ramrod: mounted on a custom made stand. A fine and impressive gun.

Nation : British
Local Price : £3750.00

A Most Rare & Stunningly Beautiful Imperial Russian Superior Cavalry Officer's Sword, Romanov Era, From the First Quarter to Mid 19th Century. A War Trophy of the Crimean War. Curved, bright polished single edge blade, cut with 2 fullers (one broad, one narrow), very fine brass hilt decorated throughout with laurel and acanthus leaves and foliage in relief, a knuckle bow with two bar guards, and a superb original wire bound polished horn grip, with a typically Russian form of forward slanted pommel, with pommel ball. Original Imperial Russian Romanov period officer's swords of the 19th century appear very rarely indeed, as so few survived the revolution, and when they do, if they are the very fine quality examples, they can achieve extraordinarily high prices. It is certainly possible this sword is a trophy of the Crimean War. This superb sabre would likely have seen its most combative service in the Crimea, such as at The Battle of Balaclava that is remembered in Britain for the actions of two British units. At the start of the battle, a large body of Russian cavalry charged the 93rd Highlanders, who were posted north of the village of Kadikoi. Commanding them was Sir Colin Campbell. Rather than "form square", the traditional method of repelling cavalry, Campbell took the risky decision to have his Highlanders form a single line two men deep. Campbell had seen the effectiveness of the new Minié rifles with which his troops were armed at the Battle of Alma, a month earlier, and he was confident that his men could beat back the Russians. His tactics succeeded. From up on the ridge to the west, Times correspondent William Howard Russell saw the Highlanders as a "thin red streak topped with steel", a phrase which soon became the "Thin Red Line". Soon afterward, a Russian cavalry movement was countered by the Heavy Brigade, which charged and fought hand to hand until the Russians retreated. That caused a more widespread Russian retreat, including a number of their artillery units. After the local commanders had failed to take advantage of the retreat, Lord Raglan sent out orders to move up and to prevent the withdrawal of naval guns from the recently captured redoubts on the heights. Raglan could see those guns because of his position on the hill. In the valley, that view was obstructed, and the wrong guns were in sight to the left. The local commanders ignored the demands, which led to the British aide-de-camp, Captain Louis Nolan, personally delivering the quickly-written and confusing order to attack the artillery. When Lord Lucan questioned to which guns the order referred, the aide-de-camp pointed to the first Russian battery that he could see and allegedly said "There is your enemy, there are your guns", because of his obstructed view, which were wrong. Lucan then passed the order to the Earl of Cardigan, which resulted in the Charge of the Light Brigade. The House of Romanov was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russia. Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, and his immediate family were executed in 1918, but there are still living descendants of other members of the imperial house. Romanov 19th century history; Paul I was murdered in his palace in Saint Petersburg in 1801. Alexander I, succeeded him on the throne and later died without leaving a son. His brother, crowned Nicholas I, succeeded him on the throne in 1825. The succession was far from smooth, however, as hundreds of troops took the oath of allegiance to Nicholas's elder brother, Constantine Pavlovich who, unbeknownst to them, had renounced his claim to the throne in 1822, following his marriage. The confusion, combined with opposition to Nicholas' accession, led to the Decembrist revolt. Nicholas I fathered four sons, educating them for the prospect of ruling Russia and for military careers, from whom the last branches of the dynasty descended. Alexander II, son of Nicholas I, became the next Russian emperor in 1855, in the midst of the Crimean War. While Alexander considered it his charge to maintain peace in Europe and Russia, he believed only a strong Russian military could keep the peace. By developing the Imperial Russian Army, giving increased autonomy to Finland, and freeing the serfs in 1861 he gained much popular support for his reign. The Crimean War was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between the Russian Empire and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom, and Sardinia-Piedmont. Geopolitical causes of the war included the decline of the Ottoman Empire (the "Eastern Question"), the expansion of Russia in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. The flashpoint was a disagreement over the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, with the French promoting the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoting those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Crimean War marked a turning point for the Russian Empire. The war weakened the Imperial Russian Army, drained the treasury and undermined Russia's influence in Europe. The empire would take decades to recover. Russia's humiliation forced its educated elites to identify its problems and recognise the need for fundamental reforms. They saw rapid modernisation as the sole way to recover the empire's status as a European power. The war thus became a catalyst for reforms of Russia's social institutions, including the abolition of serfdom and overhauls in the justice system, local self-government, education and military service. In excellent condition overall considering this fabulous and incredibly rare sabre’s cavaly officer has obviously seen hand-to-hand combat, thus there is very light and minuscule overall surface wear to the steel blade, but it is still very fine indeed, very bright and wonderfully polished. On the hilt’s upper section of knuckle-bow, on the inner side, there is a very fine tiny combat-stress hairline {see photo 6}. Likely caused by a combat punch action impact of the hilt against a resistant object, possibly a helmet. Blade overall 38 .75 inches long, blade 31.75 inches long. No scabbard Possibly by Schaaf & Söhne St. Petersburg. We have seen Imperial Russian, of very similar quality and design, officer’s dragoon swords, such as a later pattern St Anne’s dragoon sword for bravery, sell for up to £30,000, so relatively, this sword is most inexpensive by comparison..

Nation : Japanese
Local Price : £3750.00

An Absolutely Beautiful 17th to 18th Century, Sino-Tibetan Noble's Sword Inlaid with Coral and Torqoise Cabochons, Silver Mounts, Rayskin and Traditional Batwing Engraving Throughout. 'Maiden's Hair' Steel Blade. Continually Used Into the19th Century. Likely the sword of a Chinese or Tibetan noble or high ranking warrior. A functional combat sword yet with elements of extravagant decor, that clearly shows to high status of its owner, during the early Qing also called Ching dynasty, that followed the late Ming dynasty. Only the third such sword we have acquired of this style and quality in the past twenty years Steel hilt with silver wire bound grip, stylised traditional Chinese batwing engraved pommel and steel edged mounting bands of the scabbard, the scabbard is panelled in giant rayskin, and a bottom chape panel in repousse silver metal, with decor of swirling winds, mounted with cabouchons of torqoise and coral to one side. The scabbard also has some silver wire re-enforced binding. This a most rare, beautiful and original antique Sino-Tibetan sword. The work was primarily created in its capital, also known as Derge, now located in Sichuan, China Old original Chinese antique arms very rarely survive, and now are generally only to be seen in the biggest and best museums in China. The fittings are very much in the form popular in the south to eastern region of the old Chinese empire in the Xizang province, and Eastern Tibet. This sword is a textbook representative example of the familiar Chinese form, well made and of good quality. The blade has traces still visible of the prominent ‘hairpin’ lamination pattern, the hallmark of traditional blades of the region, consisting of seven dark lines alternating with six light lines, caused by the different types of iron that were combined during the forging process. This was formed by combining harder and softer iron, referred to as "male iron" and "female iron" in traditional ancient texts from the region, which was folded, nested together, and forged into one piece in a blade-making technique called pattern welding. The hilts are often made of engraved silver set with coral or turquoise, or in some rare instances are intricately chiseled and pierced in iron that is damascened in gold and silver. The different styles of swords that were once found in greater China can be distinguished by several basic features, which include the type of blade, the form of hilt, the type of scabbard, and how the sword was designed to be worn. Traditional texts divide swords into five principal types, each of which has a main subtype, for a total of ten basic types. These are in turn subdivided into dozens of further subtypes, many of which may, however, reflect legends and literary conventions rather than actual sword forms. A few excellent examples of arms and armour from the region can be found in museum collections today. Other types were preserved for ceremonial occasions, the most important of which was the Great Prayer Festival, a month-long event held annually in the local capitol. Historical armour and weapons were also very fortunately preserved due to the long-standing tradition of placing votive arms in monasteries and temples, where they are kept in special chapels, known as gonkhang (mgon khang), and dedicated to the service of guardian deities. Although there are representatives of the Manchus in Tibet, the region is largely left to function independently and does so for the next 200 years. Currently in one of the worlds greatest museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there is an exhibition of Chinese & Tibetan arms and armour. Item 36.25.1464., within the exhibition, is a near identical sword, dated as 17th century, used until the 19th century, but theirs is lacking its scabbard. The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing pronounced Ching, was the last imperial dynasty of China and Mongolia. It was established in 1636, and ruled China proper from 1644 to 1912. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted for almost three centuries and formed the territorial base for modern China. It was the fifth largest empire in world history. The dynasty was founded by the Manchu Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria. In the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming Jianzhou Guard vassal, began organizing "Banners", military-social units that included Manchu, Han, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Manchu clans into a unified entity. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of the Liaodong Peninsula and declared a new dynasty, the Qing. In an unrelated development, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing, in 1644. Rather than serve them, Ming general Wu Sangui made an alliance with the Manchus and opened the Shanhai Pass to the Banner Armies led by the regent Prince Dorgon. He defeated the rebels and seized the capital. Resistance from the Southern Ming and the Revolt of the Three Feudatories led by Wu Sangui delayed the Qing conquest of China proper by nearly four decades. The conquest was only completed in 1683 under the Kangxi Emperor reign (1661-1722). The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Inner Asia. During the Qianlong Emperor reign (1735-1796) the dynasty reached its apogee, but then began its initial decline in prosperity and imperial control. The population rose to some 400 millions, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, virtually guaranteeing eventual fiscal crisis. Corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites failed to change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium Wars, European powers imposed "unequal treaties", free trade, extraterritoriality and treaty ports under foreign control. The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) and the Dungan Revolt (1862-1877) in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of these disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order and the Qing rulers. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea and the possession of Taiwan. New Armies were organised, but the ambitious Hundred Days' Reform of 1898 was turned back in a coup by the conservative Empress Dowager Cixi. When the Scramble for Concessions by foreign powers triggered the violently anti-foreign "Boxers", the foreign powers invaded China, Cixi declared war on them, leading to defeat and the flight of the Imperial Court to Xi'an. Overall 23 3/4 inches long. A most similar example is within the Metropolitan Museum collection Object Number: 36.25.1466a, b Original surviving antique swords from China and Tibet are extremely scarce due to the Cultural Revolution in the mid 20th century in China, when 99.99% of all existing antique swords were destroyed or ordered melted down for their metal content. Of course the manufacture and sale of reproduction Chinese swords in China is a thriving market, many are intimated and sold to be old and original, but very sadly, none are.

Nation : British
Local Price : £3,750.00

Presentation Sword to the Earl of Dudley, very fine. Ref X3403. A Very Fine Presentation Sword to the Earl of Dudley. 40&157; overall with 34&157; flat etched blade, etched on one side with foliage, Worcestershire Yeomanry badge, Earl Dudley´s crest & ´Comme Je Fus´ (As I Was) & ´Henry Wilkinson Pall Mall London´ on the forte . The reverse with initials under a coronet, foliage & in a tablet ´From Keith Frazer Inspector of Cavalry To William Earl of Dudley Queens Own Worcestershire Yeomanry May 18th 1892´. Three bar Light Cavalry hilt with backpiece embossed with Earl of Dudley coronet & initials. Numbered 31114 on back edge of the blade. Three bar light cavalry hilt with backpiece embossed with Earl of Dudley coronet and initials. Fish skin grip with twisted three strand silver wire. In its plated steel scabbard.&194;&160; No 31111 for 1892 A superb sword in very good condition with very extensive research documentation William Humble Ward, 12th Lord Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley & Viscount Ednam, was born 25th May, 1867, the son of William Humble Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (2nd Creation) and Georgina, Elizabeth Moncrieffe. His first marriage was to Rachel Gurney (daughter of Charles Gurney) in 1891. She died in 1920. Amongst his many endeavours, Dudley joined the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars as a supernumerary lieutenant on 18 April 1885&194;&160;and was promoted to captain on 2 June 1888&194;&160;and major on 23 September 1893. he served in the Yeoman Cavalry from 1899 to 1900 and became the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1895 to 1902. He travelled extensively, becoming Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1902 to 1906, and the Govenor General of Australia from 1908 to 1911. He was also active during the First World War (1914-1918) by commanding the 1st Worcestershire Yeomanry in Egypt and Gallipoli in 1915. During his life he had owned around 30,000 acres of land which included mineral deposits in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, as well as iron works and coal mines. He also had commercial interests in Jamaica. His second marriage was to Gertie Millar in 1924. He died in 1932. Lieutenant-General James Keith Fraser CMG (20 September 1832 "e; 30 July 1895) was a British Army officer .In 1855, he served as military attache at Viennna. He gained the rank of Colonel in the 1st Life Guards and was Inspector-General of Cavalry in Great Britain and Ireland in 1891 Images courtesy of West Street Antiques (https://antiquearmsandarmour.com/)

Nation : British
Local Price : £3,700.00

SOLD. English 17th Century "Mortuary" officers sword. Broad double-edged blade, stamped "1530" and Passau running wolf. Iron hilt comprising six bar, chiselled

Nation : British
Local Price : £3600

English Mortuary Sword of Early Form dating to the second quarter of the 17th century. A fine English “Mortuary” hilted sword dating to the second quarter of the of the 17th century and the English Civil War period. The spacious hilt is of boatshell type uniquely and boldly chiselled and engraved with monsters and busts in the English manner. The hilt has a wristguard, a knucklebow to the front and guard bars on each side. The secondary scrolled guard bars present on later Mortuary hilts had not yet evolved at the time this sword was made indicating that it is of early type probably dating to the time just after Mortuary swords evolved from the “Proto” Mortuary types. It is mounted with a robust double edged blade. The hilt is of typical form consisting of a broad boat-shaped guard plate from which the three main curved flattened guard bars taper upwards ending with flattened angled terminals screwed into the pommel. The base of each side guard bar is strengthened with a fishtail terminal which joins the bars to the dish. The downwardly curled wrist guard strengthens the rear edge of the plate. The sword is notable because of its robust build, fine condition and the higher than average quality and depth of the chiselled decoration. The convex surface of the guard plate is chiselled with three finely executed busts of men with wigs and mustaches which may represent King Charles I. Each bust is surrounded by two scaly sea monsters within floral bordered panels. The heavy solid pommel is of slightly flattened globular shape with an integral button on top and a flared neck beneath. It is chiselled in the same style as the hilt with busts on each side surrounded by monsters which demonstrates the homogeneity of the parts. The grip is an impressive piece of work. It consists of a fluted wooden core horizontally wrapped with twisted brass wire depressed into the six flutes. Vertical lengths of twisted wire are applied to the flutes and Turks Heads are present at the top and bottom of the grip. The base of the grip sits on an iron flanged plug mounted onto the inside of the guard plate from which two langets extend through the tang aperture to flank the blade either side for a short distance below the hilt. The double-edged blade is of flattened hexagonal section and tapers gently to its tip. It has a stylised orb and cross armourers mark on both sides with crosses and geometric shapes below. The blade was probably made in Solingen in Germany from where huge numbers of blades were imported into Britain during the Civil War period to fulfil demand for swords on both Royalist and Parliamentarian sides. The blade is 32 inches long (81.25 cm) and overall the sword measures 38.5 inches (98 cm) long. Stuart C Mowbray in “British Military Swords”, Mowbray Publishing, 2013, dedicates a section to Mortuary Swords in pages 178 to 225, as does Cyril Mazansky, in “British Basket Hilted Swords”, Boydell Press 2005, Chapter 11, pages 233 to 280.

Nation : British
Local Price : $4,995.00

Scottish Basket-Hilted Broadsword and Scabbard, Early 18th C. Showing great age, this “Stirling” style basket-hilted broadsword features iron full-basket guard composed of round-section bars and flat plates pierced with circles and hearts in typical Scottish fashion. Low conical pommel quartered by flutes and bearing a pommel button. Wood grip, lacking its original wrap. Unmarked double-edged 31 1/4″ (79.4 cm) blade of lens section with narrow fullers along each edge and unusual pattern of longitudinal fullers on one side over the lower two thirds and short diagonal fullers on the lower half of the other side. Black leather scabbard with iron throat and drag, with long frog button (scabbard original to the period, but likely not made for this sword). Overall length 36 3/4″ (93.3 cm), not including scabbard. Very good condition, the metal with pitting and dark patina. Scabbard seam open over most of its length, showing cracking, but still supple. Similar examples in the Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen, and illustrated in “British Basket-hilted Swords”, by Cyril Mazansky. Very rare to find an original early 18th Century scabbard for one of these swords. Predating the Jacobite Uprising of 1745, this sword could well be a veteran of the decisive Battle of Culloden, the last land battle fought on British soil.